Back to business = Usually said at the end of an interval during a business discussion.

 

Back-to-back = An obligation undertaken by one party to a second party is covered by an other equal obligation of a third party to the first party so that the first party does not run any risk.

 

Back to square one = To go back to the starting point after a fruitless effort to achieve or to discover something.

 

Back to the basics = To return to the basic elements of an issue after having explored various sophisticated dimensions of that issue.

 

Back trading = Asking to re-negotiate things already agreed or to add new requests during negotiations.

 

Balance sheet financing = To provide financing to a company based exclusively on the strength of its balance sheet, without requesting mortgages on assets or any other form of security such as mortgages on tangible assets (asset financing). See also “Asset financing” and “Project financing”

 

Balloon payment = The inflated loan principal amount payable on the last day of the loan period, together with the last installment. See also “Bullet payment” and “Moratorium”.

 

Bancassurance = The phenomenon the banks to offer insurance related products and the insurance companies to offer banking related products.

 

Bank secrecy = The legal and moral obligation of the banks and their employees not to reveal any kind of information, whatsoever, to unauthorized third parties.

 

Bankable risk = A risk which is acceptable by the banks.

 

Basis points = The first two decimal points of percentage rates. E.g. 0,12% may be expressed as 12 basis points while 1,30% as 130 basis points.

 

Bearish/Bullish market = Pessimist (weak) / Optimist (strong) market conditions

 

Beauty first = A compliment addressed by a man to a woman when opening for her a door and letting her pass first. See also: “Age before brains”

 

Bed time stories = Humoristic expression for easily read books

 

Beggars are not choosers = When you are not in a position to impose your terms you have to compromise.

 

Believe it or not = What follows this phrase is so strange that it is difficult to believe.

 

Big mouth = The person that talks too much, cannot keep a secret.

 

Bilateral = An action taken or decision made after the agreement of the two parties involved / concerned = Διμερής.

 

Booking Unit = The branch or any other legal entity of a group in the books of which a specific transaction is registered.

 

Brain storming = A team of people discussing and analyzing a problem trying to explore all its aspects without a specific methodology until the solution arises from that discussion.

 

Brain washing = The procedure through which somebody is inderectly influenced in order to adopt ideas or way of thinking desired by somebode else = Πλύση εγκεφάλου.

 

Break even = The situation where income equals expenses or, generally, where the positive amounts equal the negative ones, without leaving any surpluses as margin. It denotes thre bare minimum of inflows needed in order to cover the outflows. =  Νεκρό σημείο.

 

Buck = The US Dollar (slang) = Το Αμερικανικό δολλάριο

 

Buffer, pillow , cushion = The safety margin before we reach a break even situation.

 

Bullet payment = One-off payment of the whole loan amount, made on the maturity of the loan period. See also: “Moratorium”, “Balloon payment”, “On a pay-as-you-can basis” and “Payment holiday”.

 

Business first = To give priority to business versus other activities.

 

Business means both parties to be happy = It denotes that, in business, by definition, all the parties involved should feel that this business is lucrative for them and that they have not been forced to enter into that business.