Basis

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All-purpose financial services jargon which, if uttered in relation to a point, means one-hundredth of a percentage point, and when comparing two things, means the unhedged difference between them. Hence “basis risk”.

Basis point

One hundredth of one percent of a given notional or principal amount. More accurate than “per cent” which suffers from a kind of relativistic ambiguity (do you mean a percentage of notional, or of a change in notional etc).