Glossary

Interest rate risk is the risk associated with any contractual agreement or financial transaction wherein interest income on liquid assets (1) is critical to the success of the transaction, and (2) the future value of which is not known or guaranteed. Interest rate risk may be borne by one or both counterparties to a transaction. In some transactions, the seller of the service assumes the interest rate risk but charges the customer a fee based on some estimate of the degree of risk assumed. Banks are subject to severe interest rate risk since the slightest movement in critical rates can produce significant gains or losses. Banks often use derivative hedges to limit the volatility of interest rates, thus mitigating the risk (by removing or diminishing the second definition above).

An interim bill is any bill for legal services prior to the final one. Waiting until a case is over to get paid would cause substantial cash flow problems for most law firms. Hence, they send interim bills at agreed-upon intervals throughout the life of a case or assignment.

Interim status is the period during which treatment, storage, and disposal facilities coming under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) are temporarily permitted to operate while awaiting a permanent permit. Permits issued under these circumstances are usually called "Part A" or "Part B" permits.

The Interjurisdictional Agreement on Workers Compensation is a special agreement between the Canadian provincial workers compensation funds that allows many employers to report earnings and pay premium in the province in which they are domiciled for work being performed by their workers in another province as long as that province does not require assessment there. Normally, when the other jurisdiction assesses the workers while in their jurisdiction, the province where the employer is domiciled will waive assessment for these workers for that work (no double assessment). The injured worker can choose to claim compensation in either the province where the employer is located or the province where the injury occurs.

The Interjurisdictional Trucking Agreement is a special agreement between the Canadian provincial workers compensation funds that provides trucking companies with an optional assessment program that simplifies the reporting of payrolls in the various jurisdictions. Employers register with all provinces/territories in which they providing trucking and report full payroll for each worker to the province of residency for the worker.

Interlining refers to transportation of cargo by two or more carriers—for example, two motor carriers or two airlines.

An interlocutory appeal is an appeal allowed before final judgment. Insurance coverage matters typically involve two questions: is there coverage, and, if so, how much is the insurer required to pay? The coverage question normally turns on a trial judge's legal interpretation of policy language. The indemnity question is normally decided by a jury based on factual evidence of the injured party's damages. If the trial judge incorrectly determines that a claim is covered, it would be a waste of time, effort, and resources to hold an unnecessary trial on the issue of damages, obtain an unnecessary jury verdict, and then allow the insurer to take an appeal from the final judgment to have the prior incorrect coverage determination reviewed. Therefore, most states have procedural mechanisms by which insurers may request that the trial judge use their discretion to allow a special interlocutory appeal of an insurance coverage determination before the issue of damages is tried to a jury.

An intermediary is a reinsurance broker who negotiates contracts of reinsurance on behalf of the reinsured, usually with those reinsurers that recognize brokers and pay them commissions on reinsurance premiums ceded. The intermediary also acts as a conduit through which communications between the insurer and reinsurer are passed, including the payment of premiums by the reinsured to the reinsurer and the collection of losses for the reinsured from the reinsurer.

An intermediary clause is a provision in reinsurance agreements that identifies the intermediary negotiating the agreement. Most intermediary agreements shift all credit risk to reinsurers by providing that the cedent's payments to the intermediary are deemed payments to the reinsurer, and the reinsurer's payments to the intermediary are not payments to the cedent until actually received by the cedent. This clause is mandatory in some states.

Intermodal involves the use of more than one mode or type of transportation for the journey—for example, motor, rail, air, or ocean.