| Abandonment | Controlling party giving up rights to property voluntarily |
| Abandonment option | The option of terminating an investment earlier than originally planned. |
| ABC agreement | A contract between an employee and a brokerage firm outlining the rights of the firm purchasing an NYSE membership for that employee. |
| Ability to pay | Refers to the borrower's ability to make interest and principal payments on debts. See: Fixed charge coverage ratio. |
| Abnormal returns | The component of the return that is not due to systematic influences (market-wide influences). In other words, abnormal returns are above those predicted by the market movement alone. Related: excess returns. |
| Absolute advantage | A country has an absolute advantage if its output per unit of input of all goods and services produced is higher than that of another country. See: Абсолютное преимущество. |
| Academic consultants | An advisory group initiated by the Board in the 1960's to provide a forum for the exchange of views between the Federal Reserve Board and members of the academic community in economics and banking. |
| Accretion of discount | A straight-line accumulation of capital gains on discount bonds in anticipation of being paid par at maturity. |
| Aggregate | Any total (e.g., the gross national product; the sum of monthly sales). |
| Amortization | The process of fully paying off indebtedness by installments of principal and earned interest over a definite time. |
| Annual percentage rate - APR | The cost of credit on a yearly basis expressed as a percentage. |
| Appraisal fee | The charge for estimating the value of property offered as security. |
| Appreciation | See currency appreciation |
| Automated clearinghouse - ACH | Electronic clearing and settlement system for exchanging electronic transactions among participating depository institutions; such electronic transactions are substitutes for paper checks and are typically used to make recurring payments such as payroll or loan payments. The Federal Reserve Banks operate an automated clearinghouse, as do some private-sector firms. |
| Automated teller machines - ATM | Computer-controlled terminals located on the premises of financial institutions or elsewhere, through which customers may make deposits, withdrawals, or other transactions as they would through a bank teller. Other terms sometimes used to describe such terminals are customer-bank communications terminal (CBC) and remote service unit (RSU). Groups of banks sometimes share ATM networks located throughout a region of the country that may include portions of several states. |
| Automatic transfer service account - ATS | A depositor's savings account from which funds may be transferred automatically to the same depositor's checking account to cover a check written or to maintain a minimum balance. |
