Definition of Reserve

Reserve

An accounting entry that properly reflects the contingent liabilities.

Excess reserves

Any excess of actual reserves above required reserves.

Federal Reserve System

The central bank of the U.S., established in 1913, and governed by the Federal
reserve Board located in Washington, D.C. The system includes 12 Federal reserve Banks and is authorized
to regulate monetary policy in the U.S. as well as to supervise Federal reserve member banks, bank holding
companies, international operations of U.S.banks, and U.S.operations of foreign banks.

Free reserves

Excess reserves minus member bank borrowings at the Fed.

Official reserves

Holdings of gold and foreign currencies by official monetary institutions.

Required reserves

The dollar amounts based on reserve ratios that banks are required to keep on deposit at a Federal reserve Bank.

Reserve currency

A foreign currency held by a central bank or monetary authority for the purposes of
exchange intervention and the settlement of inter-governmental claims.

Reserve ratios

Specified percentages of deposits, established by the Federal reserve Board, that banks must
keep in a non-interest-bearing account at one of the twelve Federal reserve Banks.

Reserve requirements

The percentage of different types of deposits that member banks are required to hold
on deposit at the Fed.

Federal Reserve (the Fed)

The central bank in the United States, responsible for setting interest rates.

Excess Reserves

reserves of commercial banks in excess of those they are legally required to hold.

Federal Reserve Banks

The twelve district banks in the Federal reserve System.

Federal Reserve Board

Board of Governors of the Federal reserve System.

Federal Reserve System

The central banking authority responsible for monetary policy in the United States.

Foreign Exchange Reserves

A fund containing the central bank's holdings of foreign currency or claims thereon.

Fractional Reserve Banking

A banking system in which banks hold only a fraction of their outstanding deposits in cash or on deposit with the central bank.

International Reserves

See foreign exchange reserves.

Legal Reserve Requirement

See reserve requirement.

Required Reserves

reserves that the central bank requires commercial banks to hold.

Reserve Currency

A currency, frequently the U.S. dollar, that is used by other countries to denominate the assets they hold as international reserves.

Reserve Ratio

See reserve requirement.

Reserve Requirement

Fraction of total deposits that a commercial bank is required by the central bank to hold in the form of reserves.

Reserves

Commercial banks' reserves consist of their holdings of cash and their balances in deposits with the central bank. See also foreign exchange reserves, excess reserves, required reserves, reserve requirement.

Reserve Ratio

This calculation is used by states to determine the unemployment contribution rate to charge employers. The ongoing balance of a firm’s unclaimed
contributions from previous years is reduced by unemployment claims for the past year and then divided by the average annual payroll, resulting in a "reserve ratio".

Cookie Jar Reserves

An overly aggressive accrual of operating expenses and the creation of
liability accounts done in an effort to reduce future-year operating expenses.

Reserved material

Material that has been reserved for a specific purpose.

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

An international bank headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, which
serves as a forum for monetary cooperation among several European central banks, the Bank of Japan, and the
U.S. Federal reserve System. Founded in 1930 to handle the German payment of World War I reparations, it
now monitors and collects data on international banking activity and promulgates rules concerning
international bank regulation.

Counterpart items

In the balance of payments, counterpart items are analogous to unrequited transfers in the
current account. They arise because the double-entry system in balance of payments accounting and refer to
adjustments in reserves owing to monetization or demonetization of gold, allocation or cancellation of SDRs,
and revaluation of the various components of total reserves.

Discount rate

The interest rate that the Federal reserve charges a bank to borrow funds when a bank is
temporarily short of funds. Collateral is necessary to borrow, and such borrowing is quite limited because the
Fed views it as a privilege to be used to meet short-term liquidity needs, and not a device to increase earnings.

Discount window

Facility provided by the Fed enabling member banks to borrow reserves against collateral
in the form of governments or other acceptable paper.

Edge corporations

Specialized banking institutions, authorized and chartered by the Federal reserve Board
in the U.S., which are allowed to engage in transactions that have a foreign or international character. They
are not subject to any restrictions on interstate banking. Foreign banks operating in the U.S. are permitted to
organize and own and Edge corporation.

Eligible bankers' acceptances

In the BA market, an acceptance may be referred to as eligible because it is
acceptable by the Fed as collateral at the discount window and/or because the accepting bank can sell it
without incurring a reserve requirement.

Federal funds

Non-interest bearing deposits held in reserve for depository institutions at their district Federal
reserve Bank. Also, excess reserves lent by banks to each other.

Federal funds market

The market where banks can borrow or lend reserves, allowing banks temporarily
short of their required reserves to borrow reserves from banks that have excess reserves.

Federal funds rate

This is the interest rate that banks with excess reserves at a Federal reserve district bank
charge other banks that need overnight loans. The Fed Funds rate, as it is called, often points to the direction
of U.S. interest rates.

Federal Home Loan Banks

The institutions that regulate and lend to savings and loan associations. The
Federal Home Loan Banks play a role analogous to that played by the Federal reserve Banks vis-Ă -vis
member commercial banks.

Fedwire

A wire transfer system for high-value payments operated by the Federal reserve System.

Initial margin requirement

When buying securities on margin, the proportion of the total market value of
the securities that the investor must pay for in cash. The Security Exchange Act of 1934 gives the board of
governors of the Federal reserve the responsibility to set initial margin requirements, but individual
brokerage firms are free to set higher requirements. In futures contracts, initial margin requirements are set by
the exchange.

International Monetary Fund

An organization founded in 1944 to oversee exchange arrangements of
member countries and to lend foreign currency reserves to members with short-term balance of payment
problems.

Monetary policy

Actions taken by the Board of Governors of the Federal reserve System to influence the
money supply or interest rates.

Mutual fund

Mutual funds are pools of money that are managed by an investment company. They offer
investors a variety of goals, depending on the fund and its investment charter. Some funds, for example, seek
to generate income on a regular basis. Others seek to preserve an investor's money. Still others seek to invest
in companies that are growing at a rapid pace. Funds can impose a sales charge, or load, on investors when
they buy or sell shares. Many funds these days are no load and impose no sales charge. Mutual funds are
investment companies regulated by the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Related: open-end fund, closed-end fund.

Other capital

In the balance of payments, other capital is a residual category that groups all the capital
transactions that have not been included in direct investment, portfolio investment, and reserves categories. It
is divided into long-term capital and short-term capital and, because of its residual status, can differ from
country to country. Generally speaking, other long-term capital includes most non-negotiable instruments of a
year or more like bank loans and mortgages. Other short-term capital includes financial assets of less than a
year such as currency, deposits, and bills.

Regulation D

Fed regulation currently that required member banks to hold reserves against their net
borrowings from foreign offices of other banks over a 28-day averaging period. Regulation D has been
merged with Regulation M.

Regulation M

Fed regulation currently requiring member banks to hold reserves against their net borrowings
from their foreign branches over a 28-day averaging period. Reg M has also required member banks to hold
reserves against Eurodollars lent by their foreign branches to domestic corporations for domestic purposes.

Special drawing rights (SDR)

A form of international reserve assets, created by the IMF in 1967, whose
value is based on a portfolio of widely used currencies.

Subject to opinion

An auditor's opinion reflecting acceptance of a company's financial statements subject to
pervasive uncertainty that cannot be adequately measured, such as information relating to the value of
inventories, reserves for losses, or other matters subject to judgment.

Obsolescence

The reduction in utility of an inventory item or fixed asset. If it is an
inventory item, then a reserve is created to reduce the value of the inventory by the
estimated amount of obsolescence. If it is a fixed asset, the depreciation method and
timing will be set to approximate the rate and amount of obsolescence.

Deposit Creation

The process whereby the banking system transforms a dollar of reserves into several dollars of money supply.

Discount Rate

The interest rate at which the Fed is prepared to loan reserves to commercial banks.

Discount Window

The Federal reserve facility at which reserves are loaned to banks at the discount rate.

Fed

See Federal reserve System.

Federal Funds Rate

The interest rate at which banks lend deposits at the Federal reserve to one another overnight.

Official Settlements Account

An account within the balance of payments accounts showing the change in a country's official foreign exchange reserves. It is used to measure a balance of payments deficit or surplus.

Adjusted Earnings

Net income adjusted to exclude selected nonrecurring and noncash items of reserve, gain, expense, and loss.

Change in Accounting Estimate

A change in the implementation of an existing accounting
policy. A common example would be extending the useful life or changing the expected residual
value of a fixed asset. Another would be making any necessary adjustments to allowances for
uncollectible accounts, warranty obligations, and reserves for inventory obsolescense.

Net inventory

The current inventory balance, less allocated or reserved items.

Order penetration point

The point in the production process when a product is
reserved for a specific customer.

Dividend

As the term dividend relates to a corporation's earnings, a dividend is an amount paid per share from a corporation's after tax profits. Depending on the type of share, it may or may not have the right to earn any dividends and corporations may reduce or even suspend dividend payments if they are not doing well. Some dividends are paid in the form of additional shares of the corporation. Dividends paid by Canadian corporations qualify for the dividend tax credit and are taxed at lower rates than other income.
As the term dividend relates to a life insurance policy, it means that if that policy is "participating", the policy owner is entitled to participate in an equitable distribution of the surplus earnings of the insurance company which issued the policy. Surpluses arise primarily from three sources:
1) the difference between anticipated and actual operating expenses,
2) the difference between anticipated and actual claims experience, and
3) interest earned on investments over and above the rate required to maintain policy reserves. Having regard to the source of the surplus, the "dividend" so paid can be considered, in part at least, as a refund of part of the premium paid by the policy owner.
Life insurance policy owners of participating policies usually have four and sometimes five dividend options from which to choose:
1) take the dividend in cash,
2) apply the dividend to reduce current premiums,
3) leave the dividends on deposit with the insurance company to accumulate at interest like a savings plan,
4) use the dividends to purchase paid-up whole life insurance to mature at the same time as the original policy,
5) use the dividends to purchase one year term insurance equal to the guaranteed cash value at the end of the policy year, with any portion of the dividend not required for this purpose being applied under one of the other dividend options.
NOTE: It is suggested here that if you have a participating whole life policy and at the time of purchase received a "dividend projection" of incredible future savings, ask for a current projection. Life insurance company's surpluses are not what they used to be.

Level Premium Life Insurance

This is a type of insurance for which the cost is distributed evenly over the premium payment period. The premium remains the same from year to year and is more than actual cost of protection in the earlier years of the policy and less than the actual cost of protection in the later years. The excess paid in the early years builds up a reserve to cover the higher cost in the later years.

Registered Pension Plan

Commonly referred to as an RPP this is a tax sheltered employee group plan approved by Federal and Provincial governments allowing employees to have deductions made directly from their wages by their employer with a resulting reduction of income taxes at source. These plans are easy to implement but difficult to dissolve should the group have a change of heart. Employer contributions are usually a percentage of the employee's salary, typically from 3% to 5%, with a maximum of the lessor of 20% or $3,500 per annum. The employee has the same right of contribution. Vesting is generally set at 2 years, which means that the employee has right of ownership of both his/her and his/her employers contributions to the plan after 2 years. It also means that all contributions are locked in after 2 years and cannot be cashed in for use by the employee in a low income year. Should the employee change jobs, these funds can only be transferred to the RPP of a new employer or the funds can be transferred to an individual RRSP (or any number of RRSPs) but in either scenario, the funds are locked in and cannot be accessed until at least age 60. The only choices available to access locked in RPP funds after age 60 are the conversion to a Life Income Fund or a Unisex Annuity.
To further define an RPP, Registered Pension Plans take two forms; Defined Benefit or Defined Contribution (also known as money purchase plans). The Defined Benefit plan establishes the amount of money in advance that is to be paid out at retirement based usually on number of years of employee service and various formulae involving percentages of average employee earnings. The Defined Benefit plan is subject to constant government scrutiny to make certain that sufficient contributions are being made to provide for the predetermined pension payout. On the other hand, the Defined Contribution plan is considerably easier to manage. The employer simply determines the percentage to be contributed within the prescribed limits. Whatever amount has grown in the employee's reserve by retirement determines how much the pension payout will be by virtue of the amount of LIF or Annuity payout it will purchase.
The most simple group RRSP plan is a group billed RRSP. This means that each employee has his own RRSP plan and the employer deducts the contributions directly from the employee's wages and sends them directly to the RRSP plan administrator. Regular RRSP rules apply in that maximum contribution in the current year is the lessor of 18% or $13,500. Generally, to encourage this kind of plan, the employer also agrees to make a regular contribution to the employee's plans, knowing full well that any contributions made immediately belong to the employee. Should the employee change jobs, he/she can take their plan with them and continue making contributions or cash it in and pay tax in the year in which the money is taken into income.

Equity

The net worth of a business, consisting of capital stock, capital (or paid-in) surplus (or retained earnings), and, occasionally, certain net worth reserves. Common equity is that part of the total net worth belonging to the common shareholders. Total equity includes preferred shareholders. The terms common stock, net worth, and common equity are frequently used interchangeably.

savings funds

Mutual funds that seek to preserve capital. This type of fund invests primarily in short-term securities with an average term to maturity of one year or less, or in the case of money market funds, 90 days or less.

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