Basel III

The minimum amount of capital that financial institutions must hold as required by regulators, serving as a buffer against potential losses. Regulatory capital requirements influence how intangible assets — particularly goodwill — are treated on bank balance sheets and affect the valuation of financial services businesses.

The EU regulatory framework for insurance and reinsurance companies, establishing risk-based capital requirements, governance standards, and supervisory reporting obligations. Solvency II uses a three-pillar structure: quantitative requirements (Pillar 1), governance and risk management (Pillar 2), and disclosure and transparency (Pillar 3).

An EU legislative framework (PSD2, Directive 2015/2366) governing payment services and payment service providers across the European Economic Area. PSD2 introduced requirements for strong customer authentication, mandated open access to payment account data for authorised third parties (enabling open banking), and created new categories of regulated payment institutions.

The International Financial Reporting Standard that defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring it, and requires disclosures about fair value measurements. IFRS 13 introduces a three-level hierarchy based on observable market inputs and is foundational to the valuation of intangible assets in financial reporting.

A violation of a financial or operational condition specified in a loan agreement, which may trigger a range of lender remedies including increased interest rates, acceleration of repayment, additional collateral requirements, or declaration of an event of default. Financial covenant breaches most commonly involve failure to maintain minimum debt service coverage ratios, maximum leverage ratios, or minimum net worth requirements.

A set of measurement guidelines and statistical standards developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for comparing productivity across countries and sectors. The OECD framework addresses the treatment of intangible investment, quality adjustment, and multi-factor productivity, providing the foundation for international productivity benchmarking.

A financial metric measuring the proportion of debt in a company's capital structure relative to its earnings, equity, or assets. The most common leverage ratios in corporate finance and lending include net debt to EBITDA, debt to equity, and debt to total assets.

A set of globally recognised standards published by the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) that provide a framework for consistent, transparent, and objective asset valuation. IVS covers the valuation of tangible assets, intangible assets, financial instruments, and businesses, and is increasingly referenced by regulators and accounting standard-setters.