Translate Financial Terms: Some Common Mistakes & Ways To Avoid

Financial Terms Translation is a service well-used by several businesses in their business management process. However, the process of translating financial terms is quite challenging which can lead to several translation mistakes.

What are some common mistakes when translating financial terms? Let’s delve into this article with Thao & Co. to find out these mistakes and some solutions to them.

What Is Financial Terms Translation?

Financial terms are words, phrases, or concepts commonly used in banking and finance activities, as well as related fields such as investment, currency, markets, etc.

Financial terms translation is the process of translating financial materials or finance-related documents from the source language to the target language according to the customer’s requirements.

This is a complex process because financial terms are usually hard to understand. To convey exactly the whole meaning of financial terms, translators need to have extensive knowledge, experience, and skills in translating in banking and finance.

Frequently-translated Financial Terms

Some specialized terms commonly used in financial materials:

1. ● Net worth: This is calculated by the value of the current assets subtract the liabilities. If the value after subtraction is greater than zero, the financial condition is on a stable trend, and vice versa. This is also the unit for calculating the total current assets that an individual or a business possesses.
2. ● Liquidity: Liquidity measures the level of mobility (or fluidity) of any product/asset, which can be bought or sold with cash in the market. Put simply, liquidity describes the ease with which an asset can be converted into cash. Typically, cash will have the highest liquidity because it can be easily used for transactions anywhere.
3. ● Inflation: Inflation occurs when the prices of goods and services continuously and uncontrollably rise, or when the government starts printing too much money. As a result, the currency will lose its value, and the purchasing power of money will be less than usual.
4. ● Bull market: This concept refers to a market that is on an upward trend with rising stock prices. This is an indication of a stable market with a low unemployment rate.
5. ● Bear market: Being opposite to a bull market, a bear market indicates a declining market with falling stock prices and a high level of unemployment.

Additionally, there are also other worth-noticing terms in financial documents, including:

1. ● Financial Statement
2. ● Balance sheet
3. ● Cash Flow Statement
4. ● Annual Report
5. ● Tax Return

These are important accounting documents for every business, and when translating them, absolute accuracy in the content as well as the security of all information must be ensured.

Challenges In Translating Financial Terms

When translating financial terms, translators will encounter some difficulties relating to meeting the legal requirements, as each country has its own regulations. Therefore, translators need to have solid knowledge of legal translation to handle these specific requirements.

Moreover, translators should also be careful with the word choice in the documents, because financial documents require absolute accuracy. That’s why the translation process needs to be carried out with great precision and care to avoid mistakes in both terminology and numerical values, as well as formatting.

Some common mistakes in translating financial terms:

Incorrect Translation of Terms

Financial terms are complicated and abstruse, hence before translating, translators have to research the meaning and usage of these terms to ensure a high level of accuracy in the translations. Translating terms incorrectly can lead to severe consequences that can adversely affect business activities, especially in the finance sector – which requires great accuracy.

Incorrect Formatting

Financial documents often have designated templates for each type of document. In translation, it is important to ensure that the translation maintains the correct format, without deviating from the original document. To avoid this mistake, you may consider using DTP translation services to ensure consistency throughout the whole document.

Inaccurate figures

Financial documents are well-known to contain a lot of numerical data. If the translator is not careful and types just one digit incorrectly, the content of the text will change completely. Therefore, when dealing with figures in financial documents, the translators must be extremely careful.

For example: When writing numbers, decimal numbers are separated by a dot in English, but in French, Spanish, and German, a comma is used. For thousands, the digits will be separated by a comma in English, whereas Spanish and German use a space and a period, respectively.

Tips to Avoid Mistakes in Financial Terms Translation

There are various solutions to avoid translation errors, here are three effective methods for you to have quality and accurate translations:

1. ● Rigorous proofreading: Meticulously proofreading helps translators detect translation errors and make timely corrections. This is an effective way to avoid errors made during the translation process.
2. ● Consult with experts: Discussing with colleagues, relatives, or friends who have worked in the financial field or have experience in translating financial jargon is another recommended way to minimize translation errors. You can also consider our Expert Review© service, which provides you with professional and constructive feedback from qualified experts to help you improve the translation more effectively.
3. ● Use professional translation services: The best way to avoid errors is to seek the support of a high-quality translation company. Seasoned translators with extensive experience and in-depth knowledge guarantee the translation is finished quickly and accurately.

A Reputable and Accurate Financial Translation Company

Thao & Co. translation company is a reliable translation partner for many businesses with years of experience in financial translation. We provide professional financial translation services in various languages.

Thao & Co. always listens and strives to meet every client’s request. Throughout years of operation, we have gained the trust of many clients thanks to our professional and dedicated working demeanor.

In addition to exceptional translation services, we also provide the following benefits to our clients:

1. ● A proprietary platform to conveniently track the translation progress and communicate with translators in charge
2. ● A team of experienced native translators with superior translation skills and comprehensive knowledge in various fields
3. ● Thao & Co. provides flexible and professional B2B translation solutions with transparent translation processes and pricing
4. ● Commitment to secure complete confidentiality of all documents and customer information
5. ● Timely completion and delivery within 48 hours for standard, uncomplicated documents

In addition to financial terms translation services, Thao & Co. also provides notarized and certified translation services, saving you time and effort on complex administrative procedures. For the certified translation service, the Certificate of Translation Accuracy from Thao & Co. will be sent to you completely free of charge.

It is also recommended to use the Industry Terms Research© service at Thao & Co. as it assists businesses in effectively reaching and attracting target customers who are experts in their fields. This is a fruitful solution to expand your business activities in new markets, especially in the international markets.

With a team of native experts in the field, Thao & Co. guarantees the final translation product is completed meticulously and precisely, increasing the credibility of your financial documents and various other related materials.

To learn more about financial terms translation and other related services at Thao & Co., please feel free to visit our Get a Quote page. We will reach out to you as soon as possible and provide detailed consultation and suitable pricing for your financial document(s).