Definition of Clearing House Automated Payments System (CHAPS)

Clearing House Automated Payments System (CHAPS)

A computerized clearing system for sterling funds
that began operations in 1984. It includes 14 member banks, nearly 450 participating banks, and is one of the
clearing companies within the structure of the Association for Payment clearing Services (APACS).

Accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS)

Schedule of depreciation rates allowed for tax purposes.

Automated Clearing House (ACH)

A collection of 32 regional electronic interbank networks used to
process transactions electronically with a guaranteed one-day bank collection float.

Balance of payments

A statistical compilation formulated by a sovereign nation of all economic transactions
between residents of that nation and residents of all other nations during a stipulated period of time, usually a
calendar year.

Block house

Brokerage firms that help to find potential buyers or sellers of large block trades.

Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS)

An international wire transfer system for high-value
payments operated by a group of major banks.

Clearing member

A member firm of a clearing house. Each clearing member must also be a member of the
exchange. Not all members of the exchange, however, are members of the clearing organization. All trades of
a non-clearing member must be registered with, and eventually settled through, a clearing member.

Clearing house / Clearinghouse

An adjunct to a futures exchange through which transactions executed its floor are settled by a
process of matching purchases and sales. A clearing organization is also charged with the proper conduct of
delivery procedures and the adequate financing of the entire operation.

Commission house

A firm which buys and sells future contracts for customer accounts. Related: futures
commission merchant, omnibus account.

Coupon payments

A bond's interest payments.

Dupont system of financial control

Highlights the fact that return on assets (ROA) can be expressed in terms
of the profit margin and asset turnover.

European Monetary System (EMS)

An exchange arrangement formed in 1979 that involves the currencies
of European Union member countries.

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.

Field warehouse

Warehouse rented by a warehouse company on another firm's premises.

Imputation tax system

Arrangement by which investors who receive a dividend also receive a tax credit for
corporate taxes that the firm has paid.

Interest payments

Contractual debt payments based on the coupon rate of interest and the principal amount.

In-house processing float

Refers to the time it takes the receiver of a check to process the payment and
deposit it in a bank for collection.

Joint clearing members

Firms that clear on more than one exchange.

Just-in-time inventory systems

systems that schedule materials/inventory to arrive exactly as they are
needed in the production process.

Lag response of prepayments

There is typically a lag of about three months between the time the weighted
average coupon of an MBS pool has crossed the threshold for refinancing and an acceleration in prepayment
speed is observed.

Market clearing

Total demand for loans by borrowers equals total supply of loans from lenders. The market,
any market, clears at the equilibrium rate of interest or price.

Mortgage-Backed Securities Clearing Corporation

A wholly owned subsidiary of the Midwest Stock
Exchange that operates a clearing service for the comparison, netting, and margining of agency-guaranteed
MBSs transacted for forward delivery.

Multirule system

A technical trading strategy that combines mechanical rules, such as the CRISMA
(cumulative volume, relative strength, moving average) Trading system of Pruitt and White.

Nonsystematic risk

Nonmarket or firm-specific risk factors that can be eliminated by diversification. Also
called unique risk or diversifiable risk. systematic risk refers to risk factors common to the entire economy.

Payments netting

Reducing fund transfers between affiliates to only a netted amount. Netting can be done on
a bilateral basis (between pairs of affiliates), or on a multi-lateral basis (taking all affiliates together).

Payments pattern

escribes the lagged collection pattern of receivables, for instance the probability that a
72-day-old account will still be unpaid when it is 73-days-old.

Prepayments

payments made in excess of scheduled mortgage principal repayments.

Progressive tax system

A tax system wherein the average tax rate increases for some increases in income but
never decreases with an increase in income.

Public warehouse

Warehouse operated by an independent warehouse company on its own premises.

Split-rate tax system

A tax system that taxes retained earnings at a higher rate than earnings that are
distributed as dividends.

Systematic

Common to all businesses.

Systematic risk

Also called undiversifiable risk or market risk, the minimum level of risk that can be
obtained for a portfolio by means of diversification across a large number of randomly chosen assets. Related:
unsystematic risk.

Systematic risk principle

Only the systematic portion of risk matters in large, well-diversified portfolios.
The, expected returns must be related only to systematic risks.

Trade house

A firm which deals in actual commodities.

Two-tier tax system

A method of taxation in which the income going to shareholders is taxed twice.

Unsystematic risk

Also called the diversifiable risk or residual risk. The risk that is unique to a company
such as a strike, the outcome of unfavorable litigation, or a natural catastrophe that can be eliminated through diversification.
Related: systematic risk

Warehouse receipt

Evidence that a firm owns goods stored in a warehouse.

Wire house

A firm operating a private wire to its own branch offices or to other firms, commission houses or
brokerage houses.

MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System)

A depreciation method created by the IRS under the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Companies must use it to depreciate all plant and equipment assets installed after December 31, 1986 (for tax purposes).

Accounting system

A set of accounts that summarize the transactions of a business that have been recorded on source documents.

Planning, programming and budgeting system (PPBS)

A method of budgeting in which budgets are allocated to projects or programmes rather than to responsibility centres.

Periodic inventory system

An inventory system in which the balance in the Inventory account is adjusted for the units sold only at the end of the period.

Perpetual inventory system

An inventory system in which the balance in the Inventory account is adjusted for the units sold each time a sale is made.

Systematic Risk

The amount of total risk that cannot be eliminated by portfolio
diversification. The risk inherent in the general economy as a
whole. Also known as market risk.

Unsystematic Risk

The amount of total risk that can be eliminated by diversification by
creating a portfolio. Also known as asset-specific risk or
company-specific risk.

actual cost system

a valuation method that uses actual direct
material, direct labor, and overhead charges in determining
the cost of Work in Process Inventory

business intelligence (BI) system

a formal process for gathering and analyzing information and producing intelligence to meet decision making needs; requires information about
internal processes as well as knowledge, technologies, and competitors

charge-back system

a system using transfer prices; see transfer
price

cost control system

a logical structure of formal and/or informal
activities designed to analyze and evaluate how well
expenditures are managed during a period

cost management system (CMS)

a set of formal methods
developed for planning and controlling an organization’s
cost-generating activities relative to its goals and objectives
cost object anything to which costs attach or are related

enterprise resource planning (ERP) system

a packaged software program that allows a company to
(1) automate and integrate the majority of its business processes,
(2) share common data and practices across the entire enterprise, and
(3) produce and access information in a realtime environment

flexible manufacturing system (FMS)

a production system in which a single factory manufactures numerous variations
of products through the use of computer-controlled
robots
focused factory arrangement
an arrangement in which a
vendor (which may be an external party or an internal corporate
division) agrees to provide a limited number of
products according to specifications or to perform a limited
number of unique services to a company that is typically
operating on a just-in-time system

hybrid costing system

a costing system combining characteristics
of both job order and process costing systems

job order costing system

a system of product costing used
by an entity that provides limited quantities of products or
services unique to a customer’s needs; focus of recordkeeping
is on individual jobs

just-in-time manufacturing system

a production system that attempts to acquire components and produce inventory only as needed, to minimize product defects, and to
reduce lead/setup times for acquisition and production

management control system (MCS)

an information system that helps managers gather information about actual organizational occurrences, make comparisons against plans,
effect changes when they are necessary, and communicate
among appropriate parties; it should serve to guide organizations
in designing and implementing strategies so that
organizational goals and objectives are achieved

management information system (MIS)

a structure of interrelated elements that collects, organizes, and communicates
data to managers so they may plan, control, evaluate
performance, and make decisions; the emphasis of the
MIS is on internal demands for information rather than external
demands; some or all of the MIS may be computerized
for ease of access to information, reliability of input
and processing, and ability to simulate outcomes of
alternative situations

normal cost system

a valuation method that uses actual
costs of direct material and direct labor in conjunction with
a predetermined overhead rate or rates in determining the
cost of Work in Process Inventory

performance management system

a system reflecting the entire package of decisions regarding performance measurement and evaluation

process costing system

a method of accumulating and assigning costs to units of production in companies producing large quantities of homogeneous products;
it accumulates costs by cost component in each production department and assigns costs to units using equivalent units of production

pull system

a production system dictated by product sales
and demand; a system in which parts are delivered or produced
only as they are needed by the work center for which
they are intended; it requires only minimal storage facilities

push system

the traditional production system in which
work centers may produce inventory that is not currently
needed because of lead time or economic production/
order requirements; it requires that excess inventory be
stored until needed

red-line system

an inventory ordering system in which a red
line is painted on the inventory container at a point deemed
to be the reorder point

responsibility accounting system

an accounting information system for successively higher-level managers about the performance of segments or subunits under the control
of each specific manager

standard cost system

a valuation method that uses predetermined
norms for direct material, direct labor, and overhead
to assign costs to the various inventory accounts and
Cost of Goods Sold

two-bin system

an inventory ordering system in which two
containers (or stacks) of raw materials or parts are available
for use; when one container is depleted, the removal
of materials from the second container begins and a purchase
order is placed to refill the first container

Du Pont system

A breakdown of ROE and ROA into component ratios.

lock-box system

system whereby customers send payments to a post office box and a local bank collects and processes checks.

Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS)

Depreciation method that allows higher tax deductions in early years and lower deductions later.

Balance of Payments

The difference between the demand for and supply of a country's currency on the foreign exchange market.

Balance of Payments Accounts

A statement of a country's transactions with other countries.

Federal Reserve System

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

Price System

See market mechanism.

Automated Clearing House (ACH)

A banking clearinghouse that processes direct
deposit transfers.

Electronic Federal Tax Payment Systems (EFTPS)

An electronic funds transfer system used by businesses to remit taxes to the government.

Automated storage/retrieval system

A racking system using automated systems
to load and unload the racks.

Enterprise resource planning system

A computer system used to manage all company
resources in the receipt, completion, and delivery of customer orders.

Field warehouse

A warehouse into which service parts and finished goods are
stocked, and from which deliveries are made directly to customers.

Pull system

A materials flow concept in which parts are only withdrawn after a
request is made by the using operation for more parts.

Push system

A materials flow concept in which parts are issued based on planned
material requirements.

Two-bin system

A system in which parts are reordered when their supply in one
storage bin is exhausted, requiring usage from a backup bin until the replenishment
arrives.

Visual review system

Inventory reordering based on a visual inspection of on-hand
quantities.

Warehouse demand

The demand for a part by an outlying warehouse.

Overdraft System

system whereby a depositor may write cheques in excess of the balance, with the bank automatically extending a loan to cover the shortage.

Progress Payments

Periodic payments to a supplier, contractor or subcontractor for work satisfactorily performed to date.

ABM (automated banking machine)

A bank machine, sometimes referred to as an automated teller machine (ATM).

Interac system

Canada's bank machine and electronic debit system. If you use your bank card at a bank machine which displays the Interac symbol (and that bank machine is not your bank's machine), you will be charged a fee.

PLUS system

A bank machine network outside Canada, across the U.S. and internationally. Customers who use a bank machine with a 'PLUS' symbol may be charged a fee.

systematic withdrawal plan

Plans offered by mutual fund companies that allow unitholders to receive payment from their investment at regular intervals.

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