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Concept
Underwriting
Summary
Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liability arising from such guarantee. An underwriting arrangement may be created in a number of situations including insurance, issues of security in a public offering, and bank lending, among others. The person or institution that agrees to sell a minimum number of securities of the company for commission is called the underwriter.
The term "underwriting" derives from the Lloyd's of London insurance market. Financial backers (or risk takers), who would accept some of the risk on a given venture (historically a sea voyage with associated risks of shipwreck) in exchange for a premium, would literally write their names under the risk information that was written on a Lloyd's slip created for this purpose.
In the financial primary market, securities underwriting is the process by which investment banks raise investment capital from buyers on behalf of corporations and governments by issuing securities (such as stocks or bonds). As an underwriter, the investment bank guarantees a price for these securities, facilitates the issuance of the securities, and then sells them to the public (or retains them for their own proprietary account). This process is often seen in initial public offerings (IPOs), where investment banks help a corporation raise funds from the public. The underwriter is obligated to purchase the entire issue at a predetermined price before reselling the securities in the market. Should they not be able to find buyers, they will have to hold some securities themselves. To reduce the risk, they may form a syndicate with other investment banks. Each bank will buy a portion of the security issue, and typically resell securities from that portion to the public. Underwriters make their profit from the price difference (called "underwriting spread") between the price they pay the issuer and what they collect from buyers or from broker-dealers who buy portions of the offering.
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