vig

n.

A small fee charged to a buyer or seller by a third-party whose software or technology was used to implement the transaction.

Example Citation:

To please the Street, and to make these evanescent windfalls appear recurring, Enron had to keep expanding into new (and ever more implausible) markets — a costly proposition that required the company to assume ever more debt. And here's the rub: Enron was not merely a toll-collector, a middleman skimming the vig off every transaction. It was a "counterparty" — that is, technically, it bought and then sold all the underlying goods that were traded under its aegis.

— Stephen Metcalf, "The How and Why of Enron," New York Observer, July 1, 2002

Notes:

The word vig is short for vigorish, which is bookie slang for a fee that's charged on each bet placed. (It can also mean interest paid on a loan.) It's origin seems to be the Yiddish word vyigrysh, meaning "profit or winnings."

Related Word:

decimal dust

Categories:

E-commerce

Money