Concept of financial asset
A financial asset means any asset that is money, equity instrument of another entity, contractual right to receive cash or other financial assets from another entity; or a contract that will be or may be settled by the equity instruments (such as shares) of a certain entity. In this context, a financial asset is an asset that is:
(a) money;
(b) equity instrument of another entity;
(c) contractual right to receive cash or other financial assets from another entity or to exchange financial assets or liabilities with another entity under conditions that are potentially favourable to the entity; or
(d) a contract that will be or may be liquidated by the entity’s equity instruments (such as shares) and by which the entity is or may be required to receive a variable number of equity instruments of the entity itself or will or may to be settled except by the exchange of a fixed amount of money or other financial assets for a fixed number of equity instruments of the entity itself. To that end, the entity’s equity instruments do not include instruments that are themselves contracts for future receipt or future transmission of the entity’s own equity instruments.
These include securities such as shares, bonds and other debt instruments, derivatives, such as swaps or commodities.
