Financial asset in the context of Asset

Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word weal, which is from an Indo-European word stem. The modern concept of wealth is of significance in all areas of economics, and clearly so for growth economics and development economics, yet the meaning of wealth is context-dependent. A person possessing a substantial net worth is known as wealthy. Net worth is defined as the current value of one's assets less liabilities (excluding the principal in trust accounts).

At the most general level, economists may define wealth as "the total of anything of value" that captures both the subjective nature of the idea and the idea that it is not a fixed or static concept. Various definitions and concepts of wealth have been asserted by various people in different contexts. Defining wealth can be a normative process with various ethical implications, since often wealth maximization is seen as a goal or is thought to be a normative principle of its own. A community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources to the benefit of the common good is known as wealthy.

A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any form of financial instrument, even though the underlying legal and regulatory regime may not have such a broad definition. In some jurisdictions the term specifically excludes financial instruments other than equity and fixed income instruments. In some jurisdictions it includes some instruments that are close to equities and fixed income, e.g., equity warrants.

Securities may be represented by a certificate or, more typically, they may be "non-certificated", that is in electronic (dematerialized) or "book entry only" form. Certificates may be bearer, meaning they entitle the holder to rights under the security merely by holding the security, or registered, meaning they entitle the holder to rights only if they appear on a security register maintained by the issuer or an intermediary. They include shares of corporate capital stock or mutual funds, bonds issued by corporations or governmental agencies, stock options or other options, limited partnership units, and various other formal investment instruments that are negotiable and fungible.

Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset with the goal of increasing the initial monetary value of said asset as a financial return whether in the form of profit, rent, interest, royalties or capital gains. The goal of accumulation of capital is to create new fixed capital and working capital, broaden and modernize the existing ones, grow the material basis of social-cultural activities, as well as constituting the necessary resource for reserve and insurance. The process of capital accumulation forms the basis of capitalism, and is one of the defining characteristics of a capitalist economic system.

An intangible asset is an asset that lacks physical substance. Examples are patents, copyright, franchises, goodwill, trademarks, and trade names, reputation, R&D, know-how, organizational capital as well as any form of digital asset such as software and data. This is in contrast to physical assets (machinery, buildings, etc.) and financial assets (government securities, etc.).

Intangible assets are usually very difficult to value. Today, a large part of the corporate economy (in terms of net present value) consists of intangible assets, reflecting the growth of information technology (IT) and organizational capital. Specifically, each dollar of IT has been found to be associated with and increase in firm market valuation of over $10, compared with an increase of just over $1 per dollar of investment in other tangible assets. Furthermore, firms that both make organizational capital investments and have a large computer capital stock have disproportionately higher market valuations.

Foreign exchange reserves, also called Forex reserves, in a strict sense, are foreign-currency deposits held by nationals and monetary authorities. However, in popular usage and in the list below, it also includes gold reserves, special drawing rights (SDRs) and IMF reserve position because this total figure, which is usually more accurately termed as official reserves or international reserves or official international reserves, is more readily available and also arguably more meaningful. These foreign-currency deposits are the financial assets of the central banks and monetary authorities that are held in different reserve currencies (e.g., the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound sterling, the Japanese yen, the Indian rupee, the Swiss franc, and the Chinese renminbi) and which are used to back its liabilities (e.g., the local currency issued and the various bank reserves deposited with the Central bank by the government or financial institutions). Before the end of the gold standard, gold was the preferred reserve currency.

Foreign-exchange reserves is generally used to intervene in the foreign exchange market to stabilize or influence the value of a country's currency. Central banks can buy or sell foreign currency to influence exchange rates directly. For example, if a currency is depreciating, a central bank can sell its reserves in foreign currency to buy its own currency, creating demand and helping to stabilize its value. High levels of reserves instill confidence among investors and traders. If market participants believe that a country has sufficient reserves to support its currency, they are less likely to engage in speculative attacks that could lead to a sharp depreciation. In times of economic uncertainty or financial market volatility, central banks can use reserves to smooth out fluctuations in the exchange rate, reducing the impact of sudden capital outflows or shocks to the economy. Adequate reserves ensure that a country can meet its international payment obligations, which helps maintain a stable exchange rate by preventing panic in the foreign exchange market. Having substantial reserves allows central banks to implement monetary policies more effectively. They can afford to maintain interest rates or engage in other measures without the immediate fear of depleting reserves, which can influence market expectations positively.

This is a list of countries and regions by global financial assets, the total privately owned assets by residents payable in currency, stocks, and bonds.

In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institution—or a decentralized network protocol manages and invests, typically on behalf of its clients. Funds may be managed for clients, platform users, or solely for themselves, such as in the case of a financial institution which has mutual funds or holds its own venture capital. The definition and formula for calculating AUM may differ from one entity to another.

Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership, interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form of currency (forex); debt (bonds, loans); equity (shares); or derivatives (options, futures, forwards).

International Accounting Standards IAS 32 and 39 define a financial instrument as "any contract that gives rise to a financial asset of one entity and a financial liability or equity instrument of another entity".

In economics, supply is the amount of a resource that firms, producers, labourers, providers of financial assets, or other economic agents are willing and able to provide to the marketplace or to an individual. Supply can be in produced goods, labour time, raw materials, or any other scarce or valuable object. Supply is often plotted graphically as a supply curve, with the price per unit on the vertical axis and quantity supplied as a function of price on the horizontal axis. This reversal of the usual position of the dependent variable and the independent variable is an unfortunate but standard convention.

The supply curve can be either for an individual seller or for the market as a whole, adding up the quantity supplied by all sellers. The quantity supplied is for a particular time period (e.g., the tons of steel a firm would supply in a year), but the units and time are often omitted in theoretical presentations.

In macroeconomics, an open market operation (OMO) is an activity by a central bank to exchange liquidity in its currency with a bank or a group of banks. The central bank can either transact government bonds and other financial assets in the open market or enter into a repurchase agreement or secured lending transaction with a commercial bank. The latter option, often preferred by central banks, involves them making fixed period deposits at commercial banks with the security of eligible assets as collateral.

Central banks regularly use OMOs as one of their tools for implementing monetary policy. A frequent aim of open market operations is — aside from supplying commercial banks with liquidity and sometimes taking surplus liquidity from commercial banks — to influence the short-term interest rate. Open market operations have become less prominent in this respect since the 2008 financial crisis, however, as many central banks have changed their monetary policy implementation to a so-called floor system (or system of ample reserves), in which there is abundant liquidity in the payments system. In that situation central banks no longer need to fine tune the supply of reserves to meet demand, implying that they may conduct OMOs less frequently. For countries operating under an exchange rate anchor, direct intervention in the foreign exchange market, which is a specific type of open market operations, may be an important tool to maintain the desired exchange rate.

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important financial institution according to the Financial Stability Board, and is considered one of the "Big Four Banks" in the United States, alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup.

The company's primary subsidiary is Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., a national bank that designates its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, site as its main office (and therefore is treated by most U.S. federal courts as a citizen of South Dakota). It is the fourth-largest bank in the United States by total assets and is also one of the largest as ranked by bank deposits and market capitalization. It has 8,050 branches and 13,000 automated teller machines and 2,000 stand-alone mortgage branches. It is the second-largest retail mortgage originator in the United States, originating one out of every four home loans, and services $1.8 trillion in home mortgages, one of the largest servicing portfolios in the U.S. It is one of the most valuable bank brands. Wells Fargo is ranked 47th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest companies in the U.S.

Paper wealth means financial assets or possessions as measured by their monetary value, as reflected in price of assets – how much money one's assets could be sold for. Paper wealth is contrasted with real wealth, which refers to one's actual physical assets. For example, if one owns a house and its assessed value increases (relative to the general price level, i.e., assuming no inflation) then one's paper wealth has increased – the asset has increased in value, meaning it could in principle be sold in exchange for a larger quantity of money, but one's real wealth is unchanged – the real asset is still the same house. It is said that one has "gotten richer on paper," meaning "as an accounting matter": numbers on a balance sheet have changed, but the physical world has not.

The term "paper wealth" is frequently used in popular discussions of wealth, and in some critiques of capitalism, finance, and certain economic theories, but is little-used in mainstream economics, which instead generally identifies wealth with paper wealth. The term "paper wealth" has some pejorative connotations, suggesting "only on paper (but not in reality)", but can also be used neutrally to mean "(simply) as an accounting matter". Related distinctions are sometimes drawn between real assets and financial assets, or between tangible assets and intangible assets, the latter particularly in accounting, as detailed below.

In finance, a perpetuity is an annuity that has no end, or a stream of cash payments that continues forever. There are few actual perpetuities in existence. For example, the United Kingdom (UK) government issued them in the past; these were known as consols and were all finally redeemed in 2015.

Real estate and preferred stock are among some types of investments that effect the results of a perpetuity, and prices can be established using techniques for valuing a perpetuity. Perpetuities are but one of the time value of money methods for valuing financial assets.

A non-financial asset is an asset that cannot be traded on the financial markets and whose value is derived by its physical net worth rather than from a contractual claim, as opposed to a financial asset (e.g., stock, bonds). Non-financial assets may be tangible (also known as real assets, e.g., land, buildings, equipment, and vehicles) but also intangible (e.g., patents, intellectual property, data).

Non-financial assets can be further divided into produced assets (fixed assets, inventories, and valuables) and non-produced assets (natural resources, contracts, leases and licenses, and goodwill and marketing assets).

Real assets is an investment asset class that covers investments in physical assets such as real estate, energy, and infrastructure. Real assets have an inherent physical worth. Real assets differ from financial assets in that financial assets get their value from a contractual right and are typically intangible.

Real assets are categorized into three categories: