A

• Advance - total loan amount.
• Accident, sickness and unemployment (ASU) cover - insurance taken out with a mortgage lender to cover your mortgage repayments in the event of accident, sickness or unemployment.
• Annual Percentage Rate (APR) - the total interest charged on a loan or mortgage.
• Annuity - where a life insurance company makes regular payments to you for the rest of your life in exchange for a cash lump sum or pension fund that you have accumulated.
• Arrangement fee - a one-off fee paid to a mortgage lender for arranging the mortgage.
• Asset - anything owned by an individual or a business that has commercial or exchange value.
• ATM - automated teller machine.
• Audit - inspection of the accounting records and procedures of a business, government unit, or other reporting entity by a trained accountant for the purpose of verifying the accuracy and completeness of the records.

B

• Balance sheet - an itemised statement that lists the total assets and the total liabilities of a given business to portray its net worth at a given moment of time.
• Bankers' draft - a guaranteed payment arranged via a bank.
• Big Four - usually refers to the largest accounting firms: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
• Blue-chip stocks - shares in a large company that is listed on the FTSE 100.
• Book-keeping - the recording of business transactions.
• Booking fee - administrative fee charged by a lender on application.
• Break-even analysis - an analysis method used to determine the number of jobs or products that need to be sold to reach a break-even point in a business.
• Buildings insurance - cover taken out to cover costs of rebuilding or making structural repairs to your property.
• Buy to let - type of mortgage taken out to buy a property that will be rented out to tenants.

C

• Capital and interest mortgage - see repayment mortgage.
• Capital expenditure - the amount used during a particular period to acquire or improve long-term assets such as property, plant or equipment.
• Capped rate mortgage - a variable rate mortgage where interest rates can fluctuate but can never go higher than the maximum (capped) rate.
• Cashback - an amount paid back to you when you take out a loan or mortgage, either a fixed sum or a percentage of the total amount.
• CCJ (County Court Judgement) - a court order taken out against a borrower who has defaulted on credit repayments.
• CEO - chief executive officer.
• Completion - when the sale of a property has been finalised and ownership of the house is transferred to the buyer.
• Compliance officer - appointed by an authorised firm and responsible for ensuring compliance with regulations (of the FSA).
• Conclusion of missives - (term used in Scotland), see exchange of contracts.
• Contents insurance - covers the value of your possessions in the event of damage or theft.
• Contracts - legal agreement between the buyer and vendor of a property.
• Conveyancing - the legal process concerning the sale of a property.
• Corporate Finance - helping client companies to raise money (eg by issuing shares) in order to expand and develop.
• Cost accounting - a managerial accounting activity designed to help managers identify, measure and control operating costs.
• Credit score - an assessment made by a lender to evaluate the level of risk you pose as a borrower.
• Credit search - a search carried out by a credit reference agency to check your credit record, whether you have CCJ, a history of not paying loans or credit cards on time, etc. Daily interest - interest rates are calculated on a daily basis, rather than monthly.