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balanced economy- An economy in which the monetary values of imports and exports are equal.

balanced fund See MUTUAL FUND.

balance-sheet insolvency See INSOLVENCY.

balance-sheet insolvency Insolvency created when the debtors liabilities exceed its assets. Under some state laws, balance-sheet insolvency prevents a corporation from making a distribution to its shareholders. Also termed balance-sheet test.

balance-sheet test See balance-sheet insolvency under INSOLVENCY.

balancing test A judicial doctrine, used esp. in constitutional law, whereby a court measures com-peting interests as between individual rights and governmental powers, or between state authority and federal supremacy - and decides which interest should prevail.

bale- A package of goods wrapped in cloth and marked so as to be identifiable on a bill of lading.

baliva See BAILIWICK.

ballistics 1. The science of the motion of projec-tiles, such as bullets. 2. The study of a weapon's firing characteristics, esp. as used in criminal cases to deter-mine a gun's firing capacity and whether a particular gun fired a given bullet.

balliva See BAILIWICK.

ballivo amovendo (ba-ll-voh ay-moh-ven-doh). [Latin "a bailiff to be removed"] Hist. A writ to remove from office a bailiff who does not have sufficient land in the bailiwick as required by the Statute of Westminster (1285).

balloon loan See LOAN.

balloon note See NOTE (1).

balloon payment See PAYMENT.

balloon payment A final loan payment that is usu. much larger than the preceding regular payments and that discharges the principal balance of the loan. See balloon note under NOTE (1).

balloon-payment mortgage See MORTGAGE.

ballot 1. An instrument, such as a paper or ball, used for casting a vote. 2. The system of choosing officers by a recorded vote, such as by marking a paper.

ballot box A locked box into which ballots are depos-ited.

ban 1. A public proclamation or summons . Bans dealt with a variety of matters, such as the calling to arms of a lord's vassals or the proclamation that an offender was henceforth to be considered an outlaw. 2. Eccles. law. An authoritative ecclesiastical prohibition; an interdict or excommunication. 3. BANNS OF MATRI-MONY. - Also spelled bann.

ban- To prohibit, esp. by legal means.

banality (ba-nal-i-tee), n. Hist. Fr. Can. law. A lord's right to make his vassals use his own wine press, oven, mill, etc.

banc (bangk or bongk). [French) A bench; esp., the bench on which one or more judges sit. - Also spelled bank. Also termed bancus. See EN BANC.

banco (bang-koh). 1. A seat or bench of justice. See EN BANC. 2. A tract ofland cut offby the shifting of a river's course; esp., land that has become cut offin such a manner from the country it originally belonged to. See AVULSION (2).

bancus (bang-kas). [Law Latin "bench"] Hist. English law. A court or tribunal.

bancus reginae (bang-kas-ra-ji-nee). See QUEEN'S BENCH.

bancus regis (bang-kas ree-jas). See KING'S BENCH.

bancus superior (bang-kas-sa-peer-ee-ar). Upper bench . The King's Bench was so called during the Protectorate (1653-1659). Abbr. b.s. - Also termed bancus publicus ("public bench").

bands Two strips of white cloth suspended from the front of a clerical-style collar, worn by advocates when appearing in the courts of the United Kingdom.

bane A malefactor or murderer; a person whose criminal act calls for the raising of the hue and cry.

banish See EXILE.

bank 1.A financial establishment for the deposit, loan, exchange, or issue of money and for the transmis-sion of funds; esp., a member of the Federal Reserve System .o Under securities law, a bank includes any financial institution, whether or not incorporated, doing business under federal or state law, if a sub-stantial portion of the institution's business consists of receiving deposits or exercising fiduciary powers similar to those permitted to national banks and if the institution is supervised and examined by a state or federal banking authority; or a receiver, conservator, or other liquidating agent of any of the above institutions. 15 USC A § 78c(a)(6). 2. The office in which such an establish-ment conducts transactions. "A bank is a quasi public institution, for the custody and loan of money, the exchange and transmission of the same by means of bills and drafts, and the issuance of its own promissory notes, payable to bearer. as currency, or for the exercise of one or more of these functions, not always necessarily chartered, but sometimes so, created to subserve public ends, or a financial institution regulated by law .... A bank is wholly a creature of statute doing business by legislative grace and the right to carryon a banking business through the agency of a corporation is a 'franchise' which is dependent on a grant of corporate powers by the state." 1A Michie on Banks and Banking § 2, at 5-6 (1993).

bank- 1. To keep money at <he banks at the downtown branch>. 2. To deposit (funds) in a bank <she banked the prize money yesterday>. 3. Slang. To lend money to facilitate (a transaction) <who banked the deal?> .o The lender's consideration usu. consists of a fee or an interest in the property involved in the transaction.

bank acceptance See banker's acceptance under ACCEP-TANCE (4).

bank account A deposit or credit account with a bank, such as a demand, time, savings, or passbook account. UCC § 4-104(a).

bank account- See ACCOUNT.

bank bill See BANKNOTE.

bank book See PASSBOOK.

bank charter See CHARTER (3).

bank charter- A document issued by a governmental authority permitting a bank to conduct business.

bank credit See CREDIT (4).

bank credit- Credit that a bank makes available to a borrower.

bank discount The interest that a bank deducts in advance on a note. See DISCOUNT (2).

bank draft See DRAFT.

bank draft- A draft drawn by one financial institution on another.

bank examiner A federal or state official who audits banks with respect to their financial condition, man-agement, and policies. Sometimes shortened to examiner.

bank for cooperatives A bank within a system of banks established to provide a permanent source of credit to farmers' cooperatives and supervised by the Farm Credit Administration.

bank for cooperatives- See BANK.

bank fraud See FRAUD.

bank holding company A company that owns or controls one or more banks . Ownership or control of 25 percent is usu. enough for this purpose. Abbr. BHC.

bank night A lottery in which a prize is awarded to a person (often a theater patron) whose name is drawn randomly from a hopper.

bank note A bank-issued promissory note that is payable to bearer on demand and that may circulate as money. - Also written bank note. Also termed bank bill.

bank rate See INTEREST RATE.

bank rate The rate of interest at which the Federal Reserve lends funds to member banks.

Bank Secrecy Act A federal statute that requires banks and other financial institutions to maintain records of customers' transactions and to report certain domestic and foreign transactions . This act, passed by Congress in 1970, is designed to help the federal government in criminal, tax, and other regulatory investigations. 12 USCA § lS29b; 31 USCA § 5311.

bank statement See STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT (1).

bankable paper Notes, checks, bank bills, drafts, and other instruments received as cash by banks.

bankable paper See PAPER.

bank-account trust See Totten trust under TRUST.

banker A person who engages in the business of banking.

bankerout Archaic. Indebted beyond the means of payment; bankrupt. - Also spelled bankrout.

banker'S acceptance A bill of exchange drawn on and accepted by a commercial bank. Banker'S acceptances are often issued to finance the sale of goods in international trade. - Abbr. BA. - Also termed bank acceptance.

banker's acceptance See ACCEPTANCE (4).

banker's bill See finance bill under BILL (6).

banker's bill- See finance bill.

banker's lien See LIEN.

banker's note See NOTE (1).

bankfraud The criminal offense of knowingly executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme or artifice to defraud a financial institution, or to obtain property owned by or under the control of a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises. 18 USCA § 1344.

banking The business carried on by or with a bank.

Banking Act of 1933 See GLASS-STEAGALL ACT.

banking day 1. Banking hours on a day when a bank is open to the public for carrying on substantially all its banking functions .o Typically, if the bookkeep-ing and loan departments are closed by a certain hour, the remainder of that day is not part of that bank's banking day. 2. A day on which banks are open for banking business. "Banking day' is defined in [UCC §] 4-104(l)(c) [now 4-1 04(a)(3)]. The definition was designed to exclude from the 'banking day' all bank holidays (although some states added specifics on holidays) as well as the portions of a day on which one or more of the substantial departments of the bank closed off their services to the public, even though it remained open for accepting deposits and withdrawing funds as well as continuously processing items for payment or for dispatch. Clearly, when night depositaries came into vogue, their existence did not extend the 'banking day.' The present existence and growing use of so- called 24-hour teller machines also does not extend the banking day. The nature of the banking day is sufficiently tenuous that banks would do well to fix a definite cutoff hour under subsection 4-107(1)." William D. Hawkland, Uniform Com-mercial Code Series § 4-104:01, at 4-43 (1984).

banking day- See BANKING DAY.

banking game A gambling arrangement in which the house (Le., the bank) accepts bets from all players and then pays out winning bets and takes other bettors' losses.

Bankr. Rep Bankruptcy Reporter. Also abbre-viated B.R.

bankrout See BANKEROUT.

bankrupt Indebted beyond the means of payment; insolvent. Also spelled (archaically) bankerout; bankrout. - bankrupt, vb.

bankrupt- 1. A person who cannot meet current financial obligations; an insolvent person . This term was used in bankruptcy statutes until 1979, and is still commonly used by nonbankruptcy courts. But the Bankruptcy Code uses debtor instead of bankrupt. 2. DEBTOR (2).

bankruptcy 1. A statutory procedure by which a (usu. insolvent) debtor obtains financial relief and undergoes a judicially supervised reorganization or liq-uidation of the debtor's assets for the benefit of credi-tors; a case under the Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) .o For various types of bankruptcy under federal law, see the entries at CHAPTER. - Also termed bankruptcy proceeding; bankruptcy case. "There are two general forms of bankruptcy: (1) liquidation and (2) rehabilitation. Chapter 7 of the Code is entitled 'Liquidation.' The terms 'straight bankruptcy' and 'bank-ruptcy' often are used to describe liquidation cases under the bankruptcy laws because the vast majority of bank-ruptcy cases are liquidation cases. In a typical Chapter 7 liquidation case, the trustee collects the nonexempt property of the debtor, converts that property to cash, and distributes the cash to the creditors. The debtor gives up all the nonexempt property she owns at the time of the filing of the bankruptcy petition and hopes to obtain a discharge. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code contemplate debtor rehabilitation. In a rehabilitation case, creditors look to future earnings of the debtor, not to the property of the debtor at the time of the initiation of the bankruptcy proceeding, to satisfy their claims. The debtor generally retains its assets and makes payments to creditors, usually from postpetition earnings, pursuant to a court-approved plan." David G. Epstein et aI., Bankruptcy § 1-5, at 8-9 (1993).

bankruptcy act The Bankruptcy Act of 1898, which governed bankruptcy cases filed before October 1, 1979.

bankruptcy case A proceeding commenced by filing a voluntary or involuntary petition under a bankruptcy statute. See BANKRUPTCY (1).

bankruptcy clause See IPSO FACTO CLAUSE.

Bankruptcy Code Title I of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 (as amended and codified in 11 USCA), which governs bankruptcy cases filed on or after October 1. 1979.

bankruptcy court A U.S. district court subunit com-prising the bankruptcy judges within the district and exclusively concerned with administering bankruptcy proceedings.

bankruptcy court- See BANKRUPTCY COURT.

bankruptcy crime A crime committed in connection with a bankruptcy case, such as a trustee's embezzling from the debtor's estate. 18 USCA §§ 152-57. See bankruptcy fraud under FRAUD.

bankruptcy estate A debtor's legal and equitable inter-ests in property at the beginning of a bankruptcy case where the property is subject to administration. See 11 USCA § 541.

bankruptcy estate- See BANKRUPTCY ESTATE. 3. The property that one leaves after death; the collective assets and liabilities of a dead person. "The word 'estate' was probably adopted because in early days it was possible to ascertain a man's status or position in life by discovering the particular kind of tenure by which he held his lands. The quality of his tenure gave a clue to his status. The baron for example ought in theory to be the holder of a barony; he has the status of a baron because he has the estate of a baron .... [O]ne of the distinguishing marks of [the] freehold estates was the uncertainty of their duration. They were invariably held either for life, or for some other space of time dependent upon an event which might not happen within a lifetime, and thus a freehold estate came to be regarded as one which involved the performance of free services only, but as one which endured for an uncertain time. In this way, the word 'estate' came to denote the quantity of a man's interest in land." C.c. Cheshire, Modern Law of Real Property 26 (3d ed. 1933).

bankruptcy fraud See FRAUD.

bankruptcy fraud- A fraudulent act connected to a bankruptcy case; esp., any of several proscribed acts performed knowingly and fraudulently in a bankruptcy case, such as concealing assets or destroying, withholding, or falSifying documents in an effort to defeat bankruptcy-code provisions. See 18 USCA § 152. Also termed criminal bankruptcy; bankruptcy crime.

bankruptcy judge A judicial officer appointed by a U.S. Court of Appeals to preside over cases filed under the Bankruptcy Code and proceedings related to bankruptcy cases that are referred by the U.S. district court. A bankruptcy judge is appointed for a term of 14 years. 28 USCA §§ 151 et seq. See ARTICLE I JUDGE.

bankruptcy judge See JUDGE.

bankruptcy law 1. INSOLVENCY LAW. 2. Traditionally, a statute that provides some relief and protection to an insolvent debtor or to the debtor's creditors. Cf. INSOL-VENCY LAW. 3. BANKRUPTCY (2).

bankruptcy petition See voluntary petition.

bankruptcy petition See voluntary petition under PETITION.

bankruptcy plan A detailed program of action formulated by a debtor or its creditors to govern the debtor's rehabilitation, continued operation or liqui-dation, and payment of debts .o The bankruptcy court must approve the plan before it is implemented. -Often shortened to plan. - Also termed plan of reor-ganization (for Chapter 11); plan of rehabilitation (for Chapter 13). See ARRANGEMENT WITH CREDITORS.

bankruptcy proceeding 1. BANKRUPTCY (1). 2. Any judicial or procedural action (such as a hearing) related to a bankruptcy.

bankruptcy trustee See TRUSTEE (2).

bankruptcy-remote entity A business entity formed in a manner designed to minimize the risk of becoming a debtor in a bankruptcy case . The entity's organi-zational charter usu. requires at least one independent director to be appointed, as well as a unanimous vote by the entity's directors, before a bankruptcy petition may be filed. The business is usu. a special-purpose entity established to perform limited functions, such as to purchase and hold accounts receivable or other finan-cial assets that generate revenue. It also has only one or a few primary creditors, to reduce the likelihood of an involuntary bankruptcy. A bankruptcy-remote entity will sometimes issue securities instead of receiving a loan from a financial institution. See SINGLE-PURPOSE PROJECT; SPECIAL-PURPOSE ENTITY; project financing under FINANCING.

bank-statement rule Commercial law. The prin-ciple that if a bank customer fails to examine a bank statement and any items returned with it, and report to the bank within a reasonable time any unauthorized payments because of a material alteration or forgery, the customer may be precluded from complaining about the alteration or forgery. UCC § 4-406.

bann 1. BAN. 2. Hist. The power of a court to issue an edict, esp. one relating to the public peace. 3. Hist. The edict itself. - Also termed bannum. "An essential attribute of judicial power in the later periods is the bann, the right to command and forbid. Etymologi-cally, bann comes from a root signifying loud speech. It may have meant at first the order issued by the leader in war; later an administrative command or ordinance. Hence it covers the official proclamation of peace in the court, and then it comes to mean the peace itself. In the older Frank sources, bann appears in the Latin as sumo, and sumo regis is the king's peace. Extra sermonem regis ponere means to put out of the peace. Another Latin or rather Latinized German word is forisbannire, from which comes our word 'banish.'" Munroe Smith, The Development of European Law 35 (1928).

bannitio (ba-nish-ee-oh or ba-). [Law Latin] Hist. Expul-sion by a ban or public proclamation; banishment. See EXILE; BAN (1).