Speak treasury fluently
Cash pooling, swaps, covenants, EPCs, treasury has a language of its own. This glossary collects the terms that come up across Onefin and explains each one in plain English, so CFOs, controllers, accountants and board members can all read from the same page.
Cash & liquidity
The vocabulary of day-to-day cash management, how money moves between accounts, banks and subsidiaries, and how you keep sight of it in real time.
Cash Management
The discipline of collecting, monitoring and deploying a group’s cash so that every subsidiary has the funds it needs, when it needs them. In practice it means tracking balances across banks, moving money internally, and forecasting future positions.
Liquidity
How readily a company can meet its short-term obligations with cash or assets that convert quickly to cash. A liquid group can pay suppliers, taxes and loan instalments on time without scrambling for funding.
Cash pool
An arrangement that consolidates the balances of several accounts, across companies, banks or currencies, so surplus cash in one entity can cover a shortfall in another. Onefin offers a modern alternative to a bank cash pool that needs no extra onboarding and can be set up in minutes.
Open Banking / PSD2
PSD2 is the EU payment-services directive that obliges banks to open secure access to account data and payments through APIs. Open Banking is the practice built on it letting platforms like Onefin sync real-time balances and initiate payments on top of your existing bank relationships.
Cash flow forecasting
Projecting future inflows and outflows — revenue, vendor payments, taxes and loan repayments, to anticipate a group’s cash position weeks or months ahead. A good forecast flags negative balances early so funds can be transferred proactively.
Reconciliation
Matching transactions in your records against the actual movements on a bank or tax account to confirm the two agree. Reconciliation catches errors and missing entries, and is the foundation of trustworthy reporting.
Debt & treasury
The instruments, metrics and benchmarks that define a group’s financing, from loans and swaps to the covenants and reference rates that govern them.
Debt portfolio
The complete set of a group’s financial obligations, external and internal loans, credit facilities, bonds, swaps and derivatives, that are managed together. Seeing the whole portfolio at once is what makes maturities, exposures and refinancing risk visible.
Accrued interest
Interest that has built up on a loan or deposit since the last payment date but has not yet been settled. At settlement you can pay it in full, pay part, leave it accrued, or compound it onto the outstanding balance.
Interest rate swap
A derivative in which two parties exchange interest-rate cash flows on a notional amount, typically swapping a floating rate for a fixed one. Companies use swaps to hedge interest-rate risk and lock in predictable financing costs without renegotiating the underlying loan.
Derivative
A financial contract whose value derives from an underlying reference, an interest rate, currency or index. Swaps, caps, floors and forwards are common examples used in treasury to manage rate and currency risk.
Covenant
A condition written into a loan agreement that the borrower must keep. For example a maximum LTV or a minimum ICR. Breaching a covenant can trigger penalties or early repayment, so covenants are monitored continuously and reported to lenders.
LTV (loan-to-value)
The ratio of outstanding debt to the market value of the asset securing it, expressed as a percentage. A lower LTV signals more equity headroom and lower risk; it is one of the most common covenants in real-estate financing.
ICR (interest coverage ratio)
A measure of how comfortably operating income covers interest costs, calculated as earnings divided by interest expense. A higher ICR means more cushion to service debt, another covenant lenders watch closely.
Collateral
Assets pledged to a lender as security for a loan. Typically shares, property, trust deeds, guarantees or cash deposits. If the borrower defaults, the lender can claim the collateral to recover what it is owed.
Trust deed (pantbrev)
A registered mortgage certificate, issued against a property, that can be pledged to a lender as security for debt. A clean ledger of which deeds are issued and to which beneficiary they are pledged prevents over-issuing and simplifies reporting.
Maturity profile
The schedule of when a group’s loans and derivatives mature, plotted over time. Reading the profile reveals concentration of refinancing risk and is a required disclosure when reporting on debt under IFRS.
Market reference rate (STIBOR / NIBOR / EURIBOR)
The benchmark interbank rates that floating-rate loans are priced against, BoE or SONIA in the UK, STIBOR in Sweden, NIBOR in Norway, EURIBOR in the euro area. A floating loan’s interest resets periodically as its reference rate moves.
IFRS reporting
Financial reporting prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards, the global accounting framework used by listed and many large private groups. Treasury feeds it with disclosures on debt, derivatives, accrued interest and maturity profiles.
Governance & ESG
The terms behind ownership, compliance and sustainability reporting from KYC and cap tables to energy performance and green financing.
KYC
"Know Your Customer". The checks that verify who owns and controls a company, used to meet anti-money-laundering rules. For a corporate group it means keeping up-to-date records of beneficial owners, board members and registrations for every entity.
Beneficial owner
The natural person who ultimately owns or controls a company, even when ownership runs through several holding entities. Identifying beneficial owners is a core KYC and regulatory requirement.
Cap table
A record of a company’s share capital who owns how many shares, of which class, and how that has changed through issues, acquisitions and mergers. It also tracks events such as new share issues or shares pledged as collateral.
SPV
A "Special Purpose Vehicle", is a separate legal entity created to hold a specific asset or project, such as a single property, ring-fencing its finances from the rest of the group. Real-estate groups often hold each property in its own SPV.
ESG
"Environmental, Social and Governance" is the framework for measuring a company’s sustainability and ethical impact. In real estate, ESG increasingly drives investor and lender decisions, with energy performance a key environmental metric.
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
An official document rating a building’s energy efficiency, typically on an A–G scale alongside a primary-energy figure in kWh per square metre. EPCs underpin ESG reporting and often determine eligibility for green financing.
Green financing
Loans or bonds whose terms are tied to environmental criteria, such as a building’s energy class or certifications. Properties that qualify can often secure lower interest costs, making traceable ESG data directly valuable.
Read the explainers
Some terms deserve more than a sentence. Our team breaks down the concepts that matter most to treasury and finance teams.
What is cash management?
Why controlling group liquidity matters in today’s market, and how cash is allocated efficiently between subsidiaries in a corporate structure.
What is ESG?
Environmental, Social and Governance explained and why sustainability and energy performance are becoming central to investors and financiers.
Interest rate swaps explained
What a interest rate swap actually is, how swapping floating for fixed works, and when treasury teams use them to hedge interest-rate risk with worked examples.
