factor

(1) The percent of the original face of an MBS pool that remains outstanding at any given time is called the current factor. Principal payments, made by the borrowers, reduce the original face every month. Thus there is a new current factor each month. The current face is always equal to the product of the original face times the current factor.

(2) An individual or firm that purchases accounts receivable from firms in need of working capital. Usually, a specialized financial firm engaged exclusively or almost exclusively in factoring. American Banker Glossary

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A financial institution that buys a firm's accounts receivable and collects the accounts. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary

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▪ I. factor fac‧tor ¹ [ˈfæktə ǁ -ər] noun

1. [countable] one of many things that influence or affect a situation:

• The council will take a number of factors into account when making its decision.

• The law should not be concerned solely with economic factors.

adˈjustment ˌfactor [countable] STATISTICS

when calculating something, a figure introduced to balance the effect of something that is not typical or representative:

• Because the data did not include all of the employees in all the companies, an adjustment factor of 5% was applied.

ˌcritical sucˈcess ˌfactor abbreviation CSF COMMERCE MARKETING [countable usually plural]

the most important things that a company does to make it successful and likely to make a profit:

• A critical success factor was the establishment of a close relationship with a local firm of surveyors.

• What is important is how IT serves the critical success factors of business across all sectors.

ˈhygiene ˌfactor [countable usually plural]

HUMAN RESOURCES things such as salary and working conditions that are not enough in themselves to make employees satisfied with their work, but can cause dissatisfaction if they are not good enough. The idea of hygiene factors was developed by Frederick Herzberg:

• Managers should not expect to motivate employees with hygiene factors alone.

— compare motivator factor

ˈload ˌfactor [singular] TRANSPORT

the number of seats on a bus, train, or plane that are occupied by passengers who have paid the full fare, used when calculating profits:

• Passenger load factor on international flights was 66% last year, down from 69% a year earlier.

• The break-even load factor (= the number of passengers needed to start making a profit ) was 61%.

ˈmotivator ˌfactor [countable usually plural]

HUMAN RESOURCES things such as the type of work someone does and whether other people consider it to be important, which can make employees satisfied with their job and want to continue working for their employer. The idea of motivator factors was developed by Frederick Herzberg — compare hygiene factor

ˈweighting ˌfactor [countable] STATISTICS HUMAN RESOURCES

if you are calculating an average for a group of different things, a weighting factor can be used to give more importance to certain things in the group. For example, to share money between people who need different amounts, a weighting factor could be used so that the people who needed more money would get more:

• The publisher has recently announced its intention to introduce a weighting factor which takes departmental size into account.

2. the deciding/​decisive/​determining factor the most important thing that affects a decision:

• The chancellor's achievements on exchange and interest rates could be the deciding factor in the election.

• The size of the firm is likely to be the determining factor as to whether decisions should be unanimous or taken by majority vote.

3. the feelgood factor JOURNALISM when people have positive feelings about the economy and their own financial situation, and the way that this influences the popularity of the government:

• An opinion poll of voters showed a big drop in the feelgood factor.

4. [countable] also invoice factor FINANCE a financial institution that pays a business the money that suppliers owe it immediately, in return for a small percentage. The business benefits by getting the money immediately, improving its cash flow. Factoring is a form of finance that can be cheaper than bank loans or overdraft S:

• New technology used by modern factors shows what cheques have been paid in and whether there are disputed invoices.

• a member of the Association of Invoice Factors

5. [countable] STATISTICS one of two or more numbers which divide into another number exactly. For example, 5 and 7 are factors of 35

6. by a factor of five/​ten etc STATISTICS if an amount increases or decreases by a factor of five, ten etc, it increases or decreases by five times, ten times etc:

• A computer system can speed up administration by a factor of about 4.

  [m0] ▪ II. factor factor ² verb [transitive]

FINANCE to buy debts that are owed to another company for less than the debts are worth, and then obtain payment directly from those who owe these debts:

• Some companies prefer not to disclose cashflow details, making it impossible to know how much merchandise in stores is factored.

factor something → in/​into/​out phrasal verb [transitive]

ACCOUNTING STATISTICS if you factor an amount in or into a figure or sum, you include it. If you factor an amount out of a figure or sum, you do not include it:

• The purchaser paying cash often pays more because the retailer has factored the credit card company's fee into the sale price.

• Even after factoring out gains, earnings still fell by 67%.

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Ⅰ.

factor UK US /ˈfæktə^r/ noun [C]

► one of several things that affects or influences a situation: »

Increasing use of online newspapers was definitely a contributing factor to the company's collapse.

»

a key/significant/major factor

»

a critical/crucial factor

»

a deciding/decisive factor

► (also invoice factor) FINANCE a business that buys the right to collect debts for another company and charges for collecting them: »

Using a factor can be a good way of getting better cashflow.

► the amount that a number is multiplied or divided by: a factor of 3/10/75, etc. »

You should reduce your final figures by a factor of three.

► COMMERCE a company or person that sells goods produced by another company using their own name, usually for payment

● the . . . factor — Cf. the . . . factor

→ See also ADJUSTMENT FACTOR(Cf. ↑adjustment factor), CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(Cf. ↑critical success factor), FEELGOOD FACTOR(Cf. ↑feelgood factor), HYGIENE FACTOR(Cf. ↑hygiene factor), LOAD FACTOR(Cf. ↑load factor), MOTIVATOR FACTOR(Cf. ↑motivator factor), WEIGHTING FACTOR(Cf. ↑weighting factor)

Ⅱ.

factor UK US /ˈfæktə^r/ verb [T]

► FINANCE to sell the right to collect payments and debts owed to your company or organization to another business: »

How many of their operations are factored?

»

Factoring is just one way of raising capital in the short term.