According to International Accounting Standard 32, a financial instrument is ’[…]any contract that gives rise to a financial asset of one entity and a financial liability or equity instrument of another entity.
V skladu z Mednarodnim računovodskim standardom 32 je finančni instrument „[…] vsaka pogodba, na podlagi katere nastane finančno sredstvo enega podjetja in finančna obveznost ali kapitalski instrument drugega podjetja“.