Guide to Analysing Companies

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NON-PERFORMING LOAN
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Note
A written acknowledgement of a debt (due either on demand
or at a date in the future), in two different forms.
 Paper money. As in a dollar or euro note or “notes and
coins”. 
 A type of security. As in floating-rate note or
promissory note.
Note issuance facility
A bank guarantee that funds will be available to the issuer
of short-term promissory notes in a period before the
notes have actually been issued. The guarantee usually involves
the guarantor in buying any notes left unsold from the issue.
Note issuance facilities (nifs) are often rolled on from one issue
of short-term notes to another.
Notional amount
With derivatives, the amount of the underlying asset to
which the contract applies. For example, a futures con-
tract for 1,000 bushels of corn has a notional amount of 1,000.
Most derivatives settled in cash usually make payments ac-
cording to some formula but also depend on the amount of the
underlying asset being traded. So a call option on 100,000
barrels of oil would be 100,000. Or the notional amount of a
six-month dollar euribor contract could be $10m, or whatever
the amount of the underlying asset.
Numbered account
A Swiss invention designed to allow depositors to hide behind
a veil of secrecy. In practice, the veil is more transparent than
they think. A numbered account in Switzerland differs from
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ordinary bank accounts in the country only in the number of
people who know the true identity of the holder, usually three
or four senior executives within the bank. The rest of the staff
know the account simply as a number.