The investments are called derivatives because they are based on, or derive from, the performance of an underlying asset, like interest rates or stocks.

Partly because of the way the loans were accounted for, the company reported a surge in its hedging activity, accomplished using financial contracts called derivatives, during its last few years.

(Such substances are called derivatives of hydrogen cyanide).

They are called derivatives.

The potential losses stem from a strategy of heavy borrowing, the purchase of of often-volatile financial instruments called derivatives and a bet that interest rates would fall, even as they began to rise this year.

Also today, the Senate shelved a proposal that would have tightened federal regulation of financial instruments called derivatives in energy trading.

All of these were converted into contracts - called derivatives - that were sold to investors.

Congress was asking pointed questions about whether complex financial contracts called derivatives could topple a major financial institution or even threaten the financial system.

These contracts, called "plain vanilla" derivatives, trade on a financial exchange that is regulated.

The F.A.S.B. began looking at these rules in part because it believed that what some companies were calling derivatives in fact were speculative investments, which should have been disclosed.