S
S&L - Sale and Leaseback (form of lease arrangement in which a company sells an asset to another party in exchange for cash, then contracts to lease the asset for a specified term)
S&L - Savings and Loan Association (depository financial institution, state or federally chartered, that obtains the bulk of its deposits from consumers and holds the majority of its assets as home mortgages)
S&P - Standard & Poor's (provider of independent credit ratings of companies, as well as risk evaluation, investment research, data, and valuations)
SAA - Special Arbitrage Account (securities broker account reserved for transactions in which the customer's risk is hedged by an offsetting security transaction or position)
SaaS - Software-as-a-Service (cloud-based computer software applications which operate from the cloud, instead of having to be installed as a package on a local computer or computer system)
SAAS - Security-as-a-Service (outsourcing of security management to another entity that delivers e-mail, Web, and network protection through the Cloud)
SAIF - Savings Association Insurance Fund (fund which insured deposits in thrift institutions until 2006, when it was merged into the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF), administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC))
SAM - Shared Appreciation Mortgage (residential mortgage combining a fixed rate of interest at below market rates and lender participation in any equity appreciation in the mortgaged property)
SAR - Suspicious Activity Report (report, developed in 1986, required to be filed when known or suspected criminal activity, or suspicious transaactions related to money laundering or violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), is detected by a banking organization)
SARs - security assurance requirements (Common Criteria standard relating to an organization's level of security certainty required)
Sarbox - Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (federal law which introduced more stringent corporate financial reporting rules and auditing oversight requirements)
SARSEP - Salary Reduction Simplified Employee Pension Plan (Simplified Employee Pension plan (SEP) allowing employees to contribute pretax dollars through salary reduction - simpler alternative to a 401(k) plan - also known as a 408(k) plan)
SAS - Statements on Auditing Standards (statements issued by the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the AICPA representing authoritative guidance on Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS))
SAS - Statistical Analysis System (statistical software package, developed by the SAS Institute, Inc., which incorporates a number of features, such as detailed statistical analysis and data graphing)
SBA - Small Business Administration (independent agency chartered in 1953 to provide financial assistance to small businesses through loans and loan guarantees)
SBIC - Small Business Investment Company (company licensed by the Small Business Administration to provide equity capital and long-term loans, subsidized by the SBA, to small businesses)
SBLI - Savings Bank Life Insurance (life insurance sold in several state savings banks by Savings Bank Life Insurance Co. of Massachusetts)
SCA - Stored Communications Act (U.S. law that addresses the disclosure of electronic communications and data held by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) under various circumstances - enacted into law as Title II of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA))
SCP - sanctions compliance professional (individual responsible for enforcement of/compliance with OFAC sanctions)
SDN - Specially Designated Nationals or Blocked Persons (individuals designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) whose assets, accounts, or transactions can be blocked and held in a blocked account)
SDR - Special Drawing Rights (international reserve currency created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and allocated to its member nations - a nation that has a balance of payments deficit can use SDRs to settle debts to another nation or to the IMF)
SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission (independent regulatory agency established in 1934 to oversee the administration of federal securities laws)
SECaaS - Security as a Service (next generation of managed security services dedicated to the delivery, over the Internet, of specialized information-security services)
SEO - Search Engine Optimization (consists of a set of strategies and techniques to naturally or organically increase the number of visitors to a Web site, by obtaining the top or a higher ranking in search engine searches)
SEP - Simpified Employee Pension Plan (type of retirement account for small businesses (under 25 individuals) and self-employed individuals)
SET - Secure Electronic Transaction (open industry standard payment protocol used to facilitate secure transmission of credit card payment information over the Internet and other netwworks - SET verifies a buyer's identity for merchants without allowing them access to the consumer's credit card information while forwarding transaction information to the card issuer)
SET - Social-Engineer Toolkit (software utility tools package capable of cloning Web pages and injecting malicious software)
SFAS - Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (accounting, reporting, and disclosure requirements issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) which effecively represent Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP))
SIC - Standard Industrial Classification System (federally designed standard numbering system identifying companies by industry, while providing other information)
SICC - Standard Industrial Classification Code (a numerical code developed by the Department of Commerce which classifies companies by industry and business activity)
SIDD - Separately Identifiable Department or Division (banking department or division which conducts advisory activities under GLBA, which otherwise might be handled by a subsidiary)
SIF - Synthetic Identity Fraud (Fraud committed through the use of synthetic or human-like, but non-existent (ficticious) identities, created and orchestrated using generative artificial intelligence (AI) programs. An alternative or related term or category is deepfakes, involving AI generated simulated images and videos, using deep learning capabilities.)
SIFI - systemically important financial institution (Financial Holding Company (FHC) or a nonbank supervised by the Federal Reserve considered of critical importance to the financial system - essentially large banks whose failure would threaten the entire financial system - which must meet more stringent capital requirements)
SIPC - Securities Investor Protection Corporation (nonprofit, government-sponsored membership corporation chartered in 1970 to protect the customers of insured broker-dealers, providing protection up to $500,000 per account)
SISS - Secure Information Sharing System (Web-based secure system used to access and transmit sensitive information)
S&LHC - Savings and Loan Holding Company (a company that owns one or more savings associations)
SLMA - Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae) (publicly traded corporation established in 1972 to increase the availability of student funding by purchasing student loans from originating institutions - formerly known as SLM Holding Corp, became USA Education)
SMA - Special Miscellaneous Account (memorandum account maintained by a securities broker holding funds in excess of margin requirements, which may result from the sale of securities or appreciation of stock values)
SNIF - Standby Note Issuance Facility (credit facility that arranges project financing through secondary obligations - standby facility guarantees payment if the orginal note issuer defaults)
SOC - security operations center (a centralized unit compriised of people, processes, and technologies working together to prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents)
SOC - Service Organization Controls (security controls over/monitoring of service organizations - vendors, businesses providing outsourced services to an organization - standards falling under Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) 16 after 2011 - replaced by the term "System and Organization Controls" in 2017)
SOCaaS - Security Operations Center-as-a-Service (cloud-based, turnkey solution focused on real-time threat detection and cybersecurity incident response)
SoD - Segregation/Separation of Duties (internal control concept in which individuals do not have responsibility for incompatible functions - the individual responsible for writing checks should not be rsponsible for reconciling the cash account)
SOD - Summary of Deposits
SOX - Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act) (federal law which introduced more stringent corporate financial reporting rules and auditing oversight requirements)
SPE - special purpose entity (also known as special purpose vehicle) (limited-purpose organization, sometimes set up as a subsidiary or partnership, that serves as a passthrough conduit for securities backed by mortgages, credit card and auto loans, leases, and other financial assets - subject to special accounting rules because of their use by Enron for off-balance-sheet financing activities)
SPV - special-purpose vehicle (also known as special purpose entities) (limited-purpose organization that serves as a passthrough conduit for securities backed by mortgages, credit card and auto loans, leases, and other financial assets - subject to special accounting rules because of their use by Enron for off-balance-sheet financing activities)
SQL - Structured Query Language (programming language that is used for creating, updatng, deleting, and reading data from a database - the standard database query language for virtually all major databases, including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Access)
SRO - Self-Regulatory Organization (industry organization, not a government agency, that sets rules of conduct for its members, licenses individuals or firms, and polices the activities of members)
SRP - Salary Reduction Plan (plan allowing employees to contribute pretax compensation to a qualified tax-deferred retirement plan)
SSAE - Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (name for pronouncements issued by the AICPA applicable to attest engagements - engagements, other than full financial statement audits, to review and report on various limited areas of company interest, such as internal controls, forecasts, or regulatory compliance)
SSARS - Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (name for pronouncements issued by the AICPA applicable to compilations and reviews of financial statements of nonpublic entities)
SSC - Small Saver Certificate (fixed-rate time deposit with no minimum balance and a maturity of 18 months, authorized in 1980 - the need for SSCs was eliminated in October 1983 with the removal of interest rate ceilings)
SSN - Social Security Number (nine-digit number assigned to a person by the Social Security Administration - used by the IRS for taxpayer identification and by private companies for individual identification)
SSTS - Statements on Standards for Tax Services (name for pronouncements issued by the AICPA that include enforceable standards for tax practitioners)
STRIPE - Swap Transferring Risk with Participating Element (hedging technique used in lending, which combines an interest rate swap with an interest rate cap - a percentage of the amount financed is borrowed at a fixed rate; the rest is financed at a floating rate with an agreed-upon cap)
STRIPS - Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal Securities (zero-coupon security created by separating coupon interest on Treasury bonds from the underlying principal - the securities are held in escrow and principal and interest portions sold separately)
SWAT - Stock Watch Automated Tracking System (computerized service that monitors all trading activity and movement in stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange in order to identify unusual trends which might indicate possible illegal activity)
SWIFT - Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (nonprofit, cooperative organization that facilitates the exchange of payment transaction messages between financial institutions around the world)