Bank Definitions

  • Definitions


















Adverse Action

An adverse action notice is a document sent to a loan applicant stating a bank’s rationale for denying a loan. It may also contain a counter offer, such as a lesser amount or a request for an approved co-borrower.

Authorized Signer Form



Back-Office Staff

Back-office staff at a bank encompasses all positions that are not customer-facing. These jobs on the operations side of a financial institution include a wide array of duties necessary to keep a bank functioning.

Bank Due Diligence

Bank due diligence refers to the steps that a financial institution takes to investigate, address, and/or minimize risk. Due diligence is performed in a wide variety of banking processes, such as underwriting, BSA, acquisitions, hiring, and vendor management.

Bank Loan Tickler Tracking

Bank loan tickler tracking is a process that enables the timely follow-up of items that must be tracked throughout the life of both consumer and commercial loans.

Bank Record Retention Requirements

Bank record retention requirements detail the mandatory minimum length that financial institutions must keep various documents.

Bank Security Officer

The job description of a bank security officer could be broad—and definitely has changed over time. Fifty years ago, a bank security officer’s main responsibilities most likely centered on the physical safety of the financial institution’s employees, customers, and facilities.

Banking Exams

Banking exams are conducted by both the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and state-level organizations to evaluate the practices of financial institutions.

Banking Management Software

Banks utilize a variety of management systems to ensure smooth operations and maintain compliance.

Barcode Scanning

Barcode scanning is a method of using barcodes to identify what a document is and where it belongs in a file. When properly utilized, barcodes can streamline a bank’s document management workflow and reduce the likelihood of documents being inserted into the wrong file.

Batch Scanning

Batch scanning is the process of scanning more than one document in a single action. For example, a lender might use batch scanning to quickly digitize an entire loan file for a customer.

BSA Compliance Officer

A BSA Compliance Officer coordinates and monitors adherence to Bank Secrecy Act regulatory requirements, which are focused on detecting and halting money laundering.


Cold Storage in Banking

Cold storage in banking provides a snapshot of each day’s activity at a financial institution. Cold storage houses a variety of reports, statements, notices, and images generated by a bank’s core system as part of its nightly processing.


Collateral is something of value that a borrower pledges at a bank’s request to mitigate the financial institution’s risk in the event of nonpayment.

Collateral Inspection

Collateral inspection is a process performed by financial institutions to confirm the value of the collateral used as security in loans.

Commercial Credit Analysis Ratios

Commercial credit analysis ratios are used by underwriters in business loan determinations.

Commercial Loan

A commercial loan is a loan that is made to a business entity, as opposed to a loan that is for personal or household use.

Commercial Underwriting

Commercial underwriting involves gathering and analyzing information to make an informed decision to approve or reject a commercial credit or loan request.

Compliance Committee

A compliance committee plays a key role at a bank. Composed generally of the financial institution’s compliance officers, including those in charge of personal banking and commercial banking, as well as a Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) officer and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) officer, the team is responsible for ensuring the bank adheres to all existing compliance regulations.

Core Banking Systems

Core banking systems serve as the central repository of account and general ledger information for financial institutions.

Credit Documents

In general, credit documents are those documents that pertain specifically to the borrower (not the loan). Financial institutions rely on credit documents to provide information about the customer and establish the customer’s creditworthiness.


Debt Covenants

ebt covenants, also known as financial covenants or banking covenants, are conditions written into commercial loan agreements that bind both the bank and borrower to the terms.

Deed of Trust

A deed of trust is an agreement between a residential or commercial borrower and a lender in which a neutral third party serves as a real estate property trustee.

Deposit Imaging

Deposit imaging is the process of digitizing paper documents that are associated with deposit accounts.


A disclosure is a document that makes information known. In the banking industry, it’s a statement provided by a financial institution—to either a consumer or commercial customer—that outlines all pertinent information.

Document Collection Software

Document collection software is used by financial institutions to electronically collect documents from customers.

Document Imaging Software

Document imaging software organizes, stores, and retrieves documents. The data managed by a document imaging system could reside on an in-house or cloud-based server.

Document Imaging Technician

A document imaging technician ensures the timely and accurate scanning and indexing of paperwork into the organization’s document management software.

Document Indexing

Document indexing involves saving information in a consistent and logical fashion.

Document Indexing Software

Document indexing software is a computer program or application that assists with storing, organizing, and recalling documents.

Document Management in Banking

Document management in banking includes all of the systems and processes that are necessary to collect, organize, and track any information that relates to customers, accounts, and operations.

Document Management System

A document management system enables an organization to digitally track, store, and retrieve information. It can also be used to generate reports and to comply with document retention requirements.

Document Scanning Software

Document scanning software is the interface that allows a computer user to communicate information to a scanner, which then converts a paper document into an electronic image.

Document Tracking

Document tracking is a process that helps financial institutions prevent, identify, and resolve issues related to existing, missing, expiring, trailing, and other documents.

Dormant Accounts

Dormant accounts (usually checking or savings accounts) are those that have had no activity for a lengthy period of time.


Entity Documents

Entity documents are used by banks for several purposes, such as:

  • Verifying that a business or organization exists
  • Ensuring that necessary documents have been properly filed by the entity
  • Determining which individuals have the authority to establish an account or apply for a commercial loan on behalf of the entity

eSign in Banking

eSign in banking involves the use of technology to collect and embed a customer’s digital signature into documents, such as forms that are needed to establish a deposit account or consummate a loan.


An exception in banking refers to any item that requires attention because it does not meet certain predefined requirements.

Exception Management

Exception management is the process of monitoring missing documents or other important information.

Exception Report in Banks

An exception report lists the documents that are missing from an organization’s files.


FDIC BankFind

FDIC BankFind is a free database offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC BankFind provides general information about FDIC-insured financial institutions.

FDIC Deposit Market Share Reports


FDIC Institution Directory

The FDIC Institution Directory provides financial reporting and other data on any FDIC-insured bank.


FFIEC is an acronym for the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. Established in 1979, the FFIEC is an inter-agency group that creates guidelines for standardizing federal audits of financial institutions.

Flood Zone Determination

A flood zone determination is performed by a flood insurance provider to ascertain if real estate is located within a floodplain.

Front-Line Staff Positions

Front-line staff at a bank are the “face” of the organization—the employees that interact directly with a financial institution’s customers. This includes a wide variety of staff, from front-line tellers cashing a $20 check to lenders working on large commercial loans.


Government Monitoring Information

Government monitoring information (GMI) typically refers to the demographic information that banks in the United States are required to collect due to mortgage regulations.


Imaging Quality Control

Imaging quality control is the process of verifying that documents have been digitized, stored, and organized in a way that aligns with an organization’s standards.


LAR Formatting Tool

The LAR (Loan/Application Register) Formatting Tool is designed to assist banks in formatting loan application data in the appropriate manner to support ongoing compliance with Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requirements.

Letter of Credit

A letter of credit is a bank-issued document guaranteeing a business’s payment for goods or services to a third party up to a specified dollar amount.

Loan Administration

Loan administration is a broad topic in banking that generally involves determining loan eligibility, tracking loan documentation, and generating reports.

Loan Assistant

A loan assistant supports a lender on the front-end of the loan process. This allows the lender to be more productive in his or her own position.

Loan Documents

Loan documents include all of the documents that are necessary for a financial institution to make a loan to its customers, including the promissory note.

Loan Imaging

Loan imaging is the process of leveraging technology to scan paper loan documents onto a computer or network repository and then organizing the electronic files.

Loan File

A loan file is a hard copy or electronic organizational tool that helps banks manage a customer’s credit and loan documents. Banks use loan files to store and organize important documents in compliance with their retention policies.

Loan Origination System

A loan origination system (“LOS”) is technology that helps banks generate loan documentation in a way that complies with regulatory and internal requirements. Banks usually install loan origination software on their local servers or access it through a cloud-based platform.

Loan Participation

In a loan participation, two or more banks fund one loan to a customer. The lead bank makes the loan and then sells a portion to at least one participating bank.

Loan Policy

A loan policy is a bank’s lending guidelines that set the terms on how and to whom it will loan funds.

Loan Portfolio Metrics

Loan portfolio metrics are data points used to determine the distribution of a financial institution’s loan types and the degree of risk associated with each loan.

Loan Producer


Loan Review


Loan Servicing Specialist

A loan servicing specialist manages elements of consumer or commercial loans from the time immediately after consummation through pay-off.

Loan Tickler Software

Loan tickler software is used to track customer and account documentation, trailing items, and ongoing due diligence.


Mortgage Quality Control

Mortgage quality control involves preparing the correct documents, obtaining signatures from the right people, providing the proper disclosures at the appropriate time, and maintaining accurate documentation.


New Account Onboarding

New account onboarding involves completely and correctly entering all pertinent details of a deposit or loan account into the bank’s core system. Depending on the bank, this process might be performed manually by document preparation staff members or by boarding clerks.

Notice Letter

A notice letter informs a bank’s customer about his or her account—and often explains that action is required by the customer.



OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) is a part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury that enforces sanctions against entities and individuals engaged in activities that threaten the nation’s security, economy, or foreign policy.


Professional Bank Couriers

Professional bank couriers are used to move documents—and sometimes cash—between a bank’s locations, often from a branch to its main facility.


Rate Spread Calculator

The Rate Spread Calculator is an online tool provided by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) that helps bankers compare a loan’s APR to the national average, based on the set of terms offered in a HMDA-reportable loan.

Related Entities

Related entities refer to relationships between a bank’s customers and accounts.


Signature Card Form


Software to Track a Loan Portfolio

Modern banks rely on a variety of software to track their loan portfolios. When strategically implemented, loan portfolio tracking software can provide banks with a global view of their investments.

Suspicious Activity Monitoring

Suspicious activity monitoring is the procedure of identifying, researching, documenting—and, if necessary, reporting—a customer’s banking pattern when it indicates possible illegal behavior.


Tickler File

A tickler file is a paper or digital reminder system. It organizes a list of current or future tasks that need completed or tracked—either once or on a recurring basis.

Tickler Report

A tickler report provides bank employees with a list of expiring documents that require action. Bankers can also generate lists of items that have already passed the expiration or due date.

Trailing Documents

In lending, trailing documents are items needed for the loan file that lag behind the consummation date. Banks should proactively identify the documents that are needed for a particular account, take steps to secure them, and track that they have been received.


TRID is an acronym that stands for TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures. TRID was developed with the intent to allow potential homebuyers to easily shop for the best deal on a mortgage by requiring lenders to provide standardized and transparent details about loans.

Trust Imaging

Trust imaging is the process of using software and a scanner to digitize and organize the variety of documents that are associated with a trust.



A UBPR, or Uniform Bank Performance Report, consolidates data submitted by banks to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) and aggregates it to demonstrate quarterly trends.

UCC Filing

A UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) filing records the fact that an asset is being used as collateral to secure a loan. The UCC filing is filed by a lender to document a lien on the property or equipment.


Verification of Deposit and Income Forms

A Verification of Deposit form is a document that is part of a personal mortgage loan application package and is used as a risk-mitigation measure.