Home › Financial services › Finance outbound glossary
Plain definitions of the words you meet when you run outbound to banks, insurers, asset managers, payments firms and finance teams: pipeline and pricing terms, email deliverability, the buyers themselves, vendor onboarding, and the email and promotion rules. Each term links to the page that covers it in depth.
This glossary is for B2B companies selling to financial institutions, and for finance firms selling to other businesses. The general outbound terms are in the B2B lead generation glossary; this page adds the words that matter when the buyer is a bank, an insurer, an asset manager or a payments firm. Every page we have written on these buyers is in the financial services hub.
The written description of the companies you want to sell to: institution type, size, region, and the problem they must have. For a bank vendor that might be "US community banks with $1bn–$10bn in assets running a core migration". Every list, email and qualification rule starts from it. Check a list against it with the lead list checker.
Every institution that fits your ICP. In finance it is often small: there are only so many banks of a given size in one country, which is why outbound to banks cannot make up for weak copy with volume.
The person inside the target institution you write to, by title and by the problem they own: a head of payments, a CFO, a chief underwriting officer. One persona per campaign keeps the copy specific.
The group that decides a purchase at a financial institution: a business sponsor plus procurement, information security, third-party risk, legal and compliance, and an approver. The Bank Buying-Committee Map lays it out by bank size; how to sell to banks covers the sale.
The person inside the institution who owns the problem your product solves and carries the purchase through the committee. The first meeting is usually with them; without one, a deal stalls at vendor review.
The person who prospects, sends outreach and books first meetings for an account executive. Agencies sell SDR time as "seats"; see outsourced SDR.
A reply that shows interest in a conversation, as opposed to an out-of-office, a referral elsewhere or a no. It is not yet a meeting. Benchmarks are in cold email positive reply rate.
A meeting in the calendar. It has not happened yet, and some booked meetings never do. Check whether an agency bills booked or held meetings before comparing prices.
A meeting that took place, with the right person present. It is the event a pay-per-meeting contract should bill, and the one we charge for.
A held meeting that meets a written definition agreed before launch: title, institution type and size, a live problem or project, and authority or a path to it. What the definition should say when the buyer is a bank is in pay per meeting for fintech: what qualified should mean; the general version is what counts as a qualified meeting.
A booked meeting the prospect does not attend. Under a fair pay-per-meeting contract a no-show is not charged.
A lead sales has accepted as a real opportunity. Agencies use the term differently, so ask for the written criteria behind any SQL count.
A limited, time-boxed first engagement. Banks often start a new vendor this way, and agencies often start a client this way. For the bank side, see your first bank pilot.
The time from first meeting to signed contract. With financial institutions it is long, because of committees, vendor review and budget cycles; first meetings come much sooner. See how long until cold outreach books meetings.
A business email to someone who has not contacted you before. Whether you may send one depends on the country and the type of recipient; see is cold email legal for financial services.
A first email and its planned follow-ups, sent at set intervals until the prospect replies. See how many follow-ups.
The contacts a campaign will email, built from the ICP. In finance, lists decay quickly as people move firms, and UK lists must be cleaned of sole traders and partnerships before email.
Checking that an address exists and accepts mail before sending, to keep bounces down and the sending domain healthy.
Replies divided by prospects emailed. It includes no-thanks and out-of-office replies, so the positive reply rate is the more useful number. Data by industry is in cold email reply rates by industry.
How many emails a set of inboxes can send a day without hurting deliverability. Work yours out with the cold email capacity calculator; the reasoning is in cold emails per inbox per day.
Whether your email reaches the inbox rather than spam. It depends on authentication, domain reputation, list quality and how recipients react.
A DNS record listing the servers allowed to send mail for your domain. It may trigger no more than ten DNS lookups; count yours with the SPF lookup counter.
A cryptographic signature on each email, checked against a public key in your DNS, that shows the message was not altered and came from your domain. Check it with the email setup checker.
A DNS policy that tells receivers what to do with mail that fails SPF and DKIM alignment, from monitor only to quarantine or reject. Build a record with the DMARC record generator; how fintechs set theirs is in the fintech email security benchmark.
The three DMARC settings. "none" only reports, "quarantine" sends failing mail to spam, "reject" refuses it. Only quarantine and reject protect a domain from spoofing.
The domain outbound email is sent from. Agencies usually send from separate domains so that cold email cannot affect the main company domain.
Raising a new inbox's sending volume gradually before a campaign, so mailbox providers learn to trust it.
The share of emails returned as undeliverable. A high bounce rate is a sign of a stale or unverified list and damages the sending domain.
The share of recipients who mark a message as spam. Google publishes the thresholds bulk senders must stay under in its sender guidelines.
A pricing model where you pay for each meeting that meets an agreed definition, rather than a monthly fee. Ours is a $1,000–$3,000 setup, then $200–$500 per qualified meeting that took place. See pay per meeting lead generation pricing.
Paying for each contact or interested reply delivered, before any meeting. The risk of the lead going nowhere stays with you. See pay per appointment vs pay per lead.
A fixed monthly fee for an agency's work, paid whatever the results. See pay per meeting vs retainer.
A one-off fee for the work before the first email: domains, inboxes, list, copy and qualification rules.
The shortest period you are committed to pay for. Read it with the notice period: together they set what stopping costs.
How long before the end of a term you must give notice to stop. A month's notice can mean paying for a month after you decide to leave.
Everything you paid an agency in a period, divided by the meetings that took place. The fair way to compare a retainer with a per-meeting price; work it out with the cost per meeting calculator.
The share of qualified meetings that become signed deals. With deal size it decides what a meeting is worth to you; the ROI calculator does the sum.
The revenue a client brings over the whole relationship. In finance, contracts are often multi-year, so LTV can justify a high price per meeting.
Informal name for the largest global and national banks. They buy through formal committees and long vendor reviews, which makes the first meeting the easy part.
A small, locally focused US bank. Decision chains are short and many functions are outsourced, so the senior title is often also the operator. See lead generation for selling to banks.
A member-owned financial cooperative. In the US they are supervised by the NCUA and buy much like community banks.
A country's monetary authority. It buys through formal public tenders, so most of the selling happens before the tender is published.
A technology company selling financial products or the tools financial institutions use. On this site, usually the seller whose buyer is a bank, insurer or finance team. See fintech lead generation and the best lead generation agency for fintech.
Technology that helps regulated firms meet their obligations: reporting, KYC, transaction monitoring, surveillance. Its buyer is usually compliance or risk.
A firm that invests money on behalf of clients through funds or mandates. Selling to one means meeting a function (risk, data, a desk) before the firm buys. See how to sell to asset managers.
A firm that manages money and advice for individuals and families. Its own client prospecting is regulated; see the best lead generation agency for wealth and asset management.
A US investment adviser registered with the SEC or a state. Its marketing falls under the SEC Marketing Rule-1).
A UK adviser who recommends products from across the market. Many are sole traders or small partnerships, which PECR treats as individuals for email.
Firms that buy stakes in private companies with money raised from investors. Their outbound is usually deal sourcing: see private equity deal sourcing outreach.
Finding companies to invest in or advise, including off-market ones contacted directly. See proprietary deal flow by cold email.
An insurance company that writes and carries the risk. It buys like a bank, through committees and vendor review. See insurtech lead generation.
A specialist firm that underwrites on behalf of insurers under delegated authority. Small teams, founder-led decisions, fast cycles.
An intermediary that places cover for clients with insurers. In the UK, broker marketing must be "clear, fair and not misleading" under the FCA's ICOBS 2.2.2R. See the best lead generation agency for insurance.
Technology for the insurance industry, sold to carriers, MGAs and brokers, each of which needs its own campaign.
A bank or payments firm that processes card payments for merchants and settles the funds to them. See the best lead generation agency for payments companies.
Financial products such as payments, lending or accounts offered inside a non-financial company's product, usually through a licensed partner.
The finance function that manages a company's cash, bank accounts, liquidity, FX and risk. The treasurer and CFO are the buyers of treasury and B2B payments tools.
How a financial institution assesses and monitors its suppliers. In the US the Fed, FDIC and OCC set out the life cycle in joint guidance (OCC Bulletin 2023-17).
The EU regulation on ICT risk at financial entities, including their contracts with ICT third-party providers. It has applied since 17 January 2025 (Regulation (EU) 2022/2554).
The Bank of England's supervisory statement on outsourcing and third-party risk management for UK banks and insurers (SS2/21).
The institution's standard set of questions about a vendor: ownership, finances, controls, subcontractors, insurance. Missing answers stall a deal after the first meeting.
Information security's questions about access control, encryption, incident handling and where data sits. Usually answered with independent assurance such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001.
An independent auditor's report on a service provider's controls, under AICPA criteria such as security, availability and confidentiality. A Type II report covers how the controls worked over a period.
The international standard for an information security management system. Certification is a common alternative to SOC 2 outside the US.
A formal invitation to bid. By the time a bank issues one, the requirements are usually written, often with a vendor who met them early.
The contract that sets how a supplier processes personal data on the client's behalf, required under GDPR Article 28.
Checks a financial institution runs to verify who its clients are. Part of customer due diligence under anti-money-laundering rules.
The rules and controls that stop financial institutions being used to launder money. AML and KYC teams are buyers of regtech.
The UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Regulation 22 requires consent for marketing email to individual subscribers (PECR reg 22). Which rules apply to you: finance outbound compliance checker.
Under PECR, a company or other corporate body, which may be emailed without prior consent. The ICO says "Sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals" (ICO guidance).
The PECR exception that lets you email an individual whose details you got in the course of a sale or negotiation, about similar products, if they were given a chance to refuse (PECR reg 22).
B2B prospecting processes personal data (a name and work email), so it needs a lawful basis. Most B2B outbound relies on legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f), with a balancing test and an easy opt-out (GDPR).
The US law on commercial email. It "makes no exception for business-to-business email": honour opt-outs within 10 business days and include a postal address (FTC guide).
Canada's anti-spam law. Commercial email needs express or implied consent (CASL s6); implied consent can come from a conspicuously published, role-relevant address (s10(9)).
German unfair competition law treats email advertising without prior express consent as an unacceptable nuisance, with no general B2B exception (UWG s7).
In the UK, a person "must not, in the course of business, communicate an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity" unless authorised or approved (FSMA s21). Selling software to a bank is not one; a fund emailing investors can be. See when a cold email becomes a financial promotion.
The UK exemption for promotions directed only at people with "professional experience in matters relating to investments", with the required statements and controls (FPO article 19).
The US rule on broker-dealer communications with the public, which sorts them into correspondence, retail and institutional communications (FINRA 2210). See FINRA 2210 and the SEC Marketing Rule.
Under FINRA 2210, a communication "distributed only to institutional investors", such as banks, insurers and registered investment advisers as defined in Rule 4512(c).
The US rule that treats "any direct or indirect communication an investment adviser makes to more than one person" offering advisory services as an advertisement (Rule 206(4)-1-1)). A templated prospecting email is likely to be one.
The legal entries are general information, not legal advice; check with your compliance team or counsel.
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