Rating
An evaluation of the quality of a company or of its bond issues, based on the company's financial strength and outlook. Such evaluation is performed by specialised agencies.

Real estate (finance)
Structured finance transactions in the real estate sector.

Relative value/arbitrage (Funds)
Funds that invest in strategies of a market neutral type and profit from the unaligned price of particular securities or financial contracts, neutralising the underlying market risk.

Retail
Segment of clientele mainly including housholds, professionals, retailers and artisans.

Risk management
Organisational structure for the determination of methodologies, measurement and management criteria as well as control tools for credit, financial and operating risks in order to guarantee the governance of exposure to such risks.

Road show
Series of meetings with institutional investors taking place in international financial markets.

RoE (Return on Equity)
Profitability ratio used to define the earning capacity of a company or credit institution.
The net income of an organisation expressed as a percentage of its equity capital.

RoI (Return on Investment)
A measure of company profitability, equal to a fiscal year's income divided by common stock and preferred stock equity plus long term debt. RoI measures how effectively the firm uses its capital to generate profit.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act
United States law passed in July 2002 making further provisions on the financial information of companies offering guarantees to the public. In particular, the new law requires greater accuracy and reliability of the financial statements

Scoring
System of analysis of company clientele, taking the concrete form of an indicator obtained by an examination of information contained in the financial statements, in addition to an evaluation of the forecasts of the performance of the sector, analysed using statistical methods.

SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission)
Federal agency that regulates the U.S. financial markets.

Secondary market
A market in which existing securities are traded after they are initially offered in the primary market.

Securitisation
Replacement of credits and other non-marketable financial assets provided by financial intermediaries with negotiable securities issued in the public capital market.

Sell
A recommendation by an analyst or advisor that a given security should be sold.

Senior/super senior
In a securitisation transaction, this is the preferred tranche in terms of priority in the matter of remuneration and redemption.

Sensitivity
It refers to the degree of sensitivity with which certain assets/liabilities react to changes in rates or other pertinent indicators.

Servicer
In securitisation transactions, this figure - on the basis of a special servicing contract - continues to manage the securitised credits or assets after they have been transferred to the vehicle company responsible for the issue of the securities.

Share
Certificate representing one unit of ownership in a company.

Shareholders' equity
Capital invested by the shareholders into the company, increased by reserves.

Solvency
The ability of a company to meet its financial (?) obligations.

SPE/SPV
Special Purpose Entities or Special Purpose Vehicles are companies specially created by one or more entities in order to perform a specific transaction. Generally, SPE/SPVs have no operating and managerial structures of their own, instead availing themselves of those of the different players involved in the transaction.

Speculative grade
Term used to identify issuers with a low rating (e.g., below BBB on Standard & Poor's index).

Spin-off
A form of cession resulting in a subsidiary or division becoming an independent company. Ordinarily, shares in the new company are distributed to the parent company's shareholders on a pro rata basis.

Spread
This term usually indicates the difference between two interest rates, the difference between the bidding and asking price in trading securities or the price an issuer of stocks and bonds pays above a benchmark rate.

SpreadVar
Value that indicates the maximum possible loss on a trading portfolio due to the market performance of the credit spreads of the credit default swaps or bond spreads, with a certain degree of probability and assuming that the positions require a certain amount of time for their disinvestment.

Stakeholders
Subjects who, acting in different capacities, interact with the firm's activity, sharing the profits, influencing its performance/services, and evaluating its economic, social and environmental impact.

SRI (Socially Responsible Investment)
Asset management activity carried out according to environmental and social criteria. There are usually three different approaches: portfolio selection (securities are included or excluded depending on the environmental or social responsibility profile adopted by the issuing companies); active shareholding (the exercise of rights such as the right to vote at meetings, resulting from the ownership of shares to influence the company social responsibility policies); community investment (the investment of capital in marginal economies with the objective of local development).

Stakeholders
All parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm. These include shareholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, suppliers, the local community, and the government.

S&P 500 (Standard & Poor's 500)
Index comprising shares of 500 US companies reflecting the general trend in the US stock market

S&P/MIB
Italian equity index. It measures the performance of 40 stocks listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (Borsa Italiana).

Stock exchange
An organised marketplace in which securities are bought and sold, prices being controlled by supply and demand.

Stock Exchange Indexes
These measure the changes in market prices on the basis of a selection of stocks. In Italy the S&P/MIB, representing a group of 40 leading stocks, is the most well-known.

Stock option
Option allocation whose underlying asset is the common stock of a company, giving the holder the right to buy its stock, at a specified price and by a specific date. They are offered to employees in order to motivate them and foster loyalty.

Stress test
A simulating procedure designed to assess the impact of extreme market scenarios on the Bank's overall exposure to risk.

Strike price
The price at which the owner of an option may buy or sell the underlying security.

Structured export finance
Transactions involving structured finance in the export of goods and services sector.

Sustainable development
Development meeting contemporary needs without jeopardizing those of future generations (Brundtland Report - WCED World Commission for Economic Development - 1987).

Swaps
Transactions normally consisting of an exchange of financial flows between operators under various contractual arrangements. In the case of a swap of interest rates, the opposite parties exchange flows of payment which may be indexed or unindexed to interest rates, calculated on a notional capital of reference (e.g., one party may pay a flow on a fixed-rate basis, while the opposite party may pay on a variable-rate basis). In the case of a swap of currencies, the opposite parties exchange specific amounts of two different currencies, repaying the same over time according to predefined arrangements that may regard both the notional capital and the indexed flows pertaining to the interest rates.

Syndicate
A group of banks that acts jointly, on a temporary basis, to loan money in a bank credit (syndicated credit) or to underwrite a new issue of bonds.

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