FED - Federal Reserve, the US Central Banking system, established in 1913 and responsible for managing the US Dollar, both within and outside the US.
FIBV - World Federation of Stock Exchanges.
Fresh Cut - Security arriving on the secondary (retail) market.
Fiduciary Account - An amount typically deposited with a Swiss Bank which will redeposit the sum with a third party bank outside Switzerland in its own name (to eliminate Swiss withholding tax on interest).
Final Dividend - The dividend paid by a company at the end of its financial year.
Fixed Deposit - A bank deposit for a fixed period of time.
Flight Capital - The movement of large sums of money from one country to another to escape political or economic turmoil, aggressive taxation or to seeking higher rates of interest.
Floor - A contract whereby the seller agrees to pay to the purchaser in return for the payment of a premium, the difference between current interest rates and an agreed (strike) rate times the notional amount, should interest rates fall below the agreed rate. A floor contract is effectively a string of interest rate guarantees.
Flotation - The occasion on which a company's shares are offered on a market for the first time.
Foreign Currency Account - An account maintained in a bank in another currency than the currency of the country in which the bank is located. Foreign currency accounts can be maintained for depositors by banks in the United States.
Forfeiting - The process of purchasing at a discount registered bank paper which will mature in the future without recourse to previous holders of the receivable. Comparable to factoring.
Fully Paid - Applied to new issues when the total amount payable in relation to the new shares has been paid to the company.
Futures - Securities or goods bought or sold for future delivery. There may be no intention to take them up but to rely upon price changes in order to sell at a profit before delivery.