Financial translation Archives - sa��ʴ�ý

Compliant financial translation: make your next financial translation an asset – not a liability

William Hagerup — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 08:00:48 +0000

Accuracy, compliance and consistency are critical in compliant financial translation, particularly when working with regulated documents and cross-border reporting requirements.

Whether you need to translate key investment information (KIIDs) or full annual reports with the management statement, auditors’ report, financial statements and all the rest of it, it’s important to choose a trusted language service provider with the experience and expertise to provide you with a compliant financial translation that’s accurate, consistent and turned around fast.

Financial terminology and regulatory precision

Like any other sector, finance and accounting has its own jargon, with the crucial difference being that the terminology used in finance and accounting often has specific legal and regulatory definitions, and refers to specific things in the context of business and commerce.

It is, for example, crucial, but far from enough, to know the difference between stocks, shares and equity;��you also need to know when to use which term. Interest and interests can denote very different things (respectively the cost of borrowing and ownership holdings), and security is not necessarily singular of securities (the former may refer to safety – financial or otherwise – the latter to traded papers such as bonds). It’s also useful to know when to use ��ǰ��پ��پ��ǲ��and when depreciation is appropriate.

These examples are merely scratching the surface of a jungle of financial terminology, accounting expressions and business jargon that need to be understood as well as translated correctly, using the equivalent financial terminology of the target language.

One of our most senior financial translators, Danielle Davis, has been working with financial terminology for over a decade. She says, “I started keeping a record of the names for IFRS and related standards that appeared in our source material and matched these up to the correct official English titles. I then added the French, German and Finnish titles when I found them in a new term base just for the IFRS titles so that everyone who works for Sandberg, in-housers and freelancers, could benefit from them.”

Only a conscientious financial translation expert would understand and undertake such an excavation to ensure the terminology is up-to-date and compliant with relevant regulations and industry standards. A generalist translator may find terms in dictionaries, even financial ones, that were once correct but are no longer used. Danielle goes on to say, “I realised that some of the generic terms used for financial jobs, e.g. ‘turnover’, ‘book value’, ‘long-term assets’, etc. had been superseded in IFRS. So it took a while to work out which terms to use instead, especially as the standards were not available in our source languages.”

The result of this approach is an accumulated store of terminology that is made available to all translators at Sandberg. Of course, accurate terminology isn’t just important for financial translation – it applies to all kinds of jobs. You can read more about the importance of term bases in ensuring the correct application of specialised terminology in our blog post on terminology management.

Timeliness without compromising compliance

Time pressure brought about by seasonal peaks can lead to error, especially if the translator who’s able to do the job fast is not the one with the greatest expertise or experience. We work with you to develop delivery models that support both fast turnaround and compliant financial translation.

This may involve the use of Account Linguists – our dedicated expert translators who you can send work to directly – cutting down red tape and speeding up turnaround time, or it may involve the use of one of our carefully selected family of expert freelancers.

Crucially, the work mentioned above, of accumulating treasure troves of terminology, may also greatly benefit you when it comes to fast delivery. Danielle again, “I would say that generally there are two reasons why it’s essential to use term bases in financial jobs: 1) compliance with the correct names and terminology, and 2) consistency within the file/job/client’s past documents.”

Her second point refers to what is known in the language services trade as translation memory (TM). When we produce a translation for you, the text is stored (anonymised in compliance with GDPR) in our system. The next time you send us a similar text, the TMs, together with the above-mentioned term lists and term bases, will help us to produce a correct translation faster.

All of our systems and procedures are designed and built with your needs in mind. For example, we can develop a private translation memory just for you to ensure consistency year after year.

Financial translation expertise for regulated documents

Another of our senior financial translation experts, Tom McNeillie, highlights another important aspect to consider in financial translation, namely that the target audience of the text may not all be accountants and finance experts:

“Key investor information documents (KIID) are regulated documents that must comply with a number of requirements in order to create a standardised document that cuts out a lot of the financial jargon and can be more easily understood by retail investors, i.e. ordinary people who are not necessarily professional investors.”

Since 2023, key information documents (KIDs) have replaced KIIDs for PRIIPs, reinforcing the need for clear, plain-language financial communication that still meets strict regulatory requirements.

Balancing legal precision with accessibility requires experience. In addition to investor information documents, we regularly translate IFRS documentation, prospectuses, annual reports, auditors’ reports, business plans, insurance documentation, public and private offering materials and more. This also includes tax reports, benefit plans, retirement schemes and documentation relating to equities, bonds, commodities and foreign exchange.

Tom goes on to explain, “Annual reports can take two main forms: visually impressive corporate documents which large listed companies produce for their investors and shareholders, or plain annual reports that investment funds are required to publish as part of their reporting obligations – these are more likely to just show core balance-sheet information in a plain format.”

Whatever your requirements, you should choose a trusted provider of financial translation services with the experience and regulatory knowledge to support your reporting obligations. When compliant financial translation work is handled by experienced experts, supported by term bases, term lists, translation memories and knowledgeable colleagues, they can turn the work around both fast and accurately.

When you partner with Sandberg, your translations are never liabilities – only assets.

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Director’s Cut, take 32: Annual reports and the art of selling your story

Anu Carnegie-Brown — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 14:05:12 +0000

Few financial statements have a broader audience than a company’s annual report. Not only does it summarise the company’s performance for the preceding year, but it also charts a course for the year ahead. ��

Knowing how to prepare an annual report is a key skill for anyone in a leadership position. It seems that such reports have been getting longer with each passing year (), but this doesn’t necessarily mean companies are able to present the kind of information in them that stakeholders are looking for. Investors will, of course, carefully analyse the financial performance of the businesses they consider funding, but they also want to understand the health and future of the company in question. They are looking for a holistic view, just like we are when visiting the doctor for a general check-up.  ��

Every January since 2016, I have put together an annual report for Sandberg, the company I work for. Sandberg is a privately owned, medium-size company, so the report is not written to attract investors, nor primarily even to inform the shareholders. It is written for our staff. I see my colleagues as our key stakeholders who invest their time and talent in the company in the same way as an investor might invest their money. They deserve to have this tool that provides information about the company’s financial performance and communicates our progress and future plans. The report is undoubtedly also useful for sharing with other interested parties like our bank manager, or could also be used for grant applications and showcasing our brand to the world. But for me, the main purpose of our annual report is to build trust and credibility with the people that matter the most.��

How to write an annual report��

Traditionally, an annual report is split into two halves. The first part contains the company’s narrative, which usually includes the following elements:��

a management discussion and analysis that provides an overview of the company’s performance and insight into the factors that impacted the company’s results;��
a business overview of the company’s operations including products, services, market position and key achievements; ��
a section on industry trends that reviews the developments in the industry and the impact they may have on the company’s future;��
corporate governance information about the board of directors and executive management team;��
a corporate social responsibility update about the company’s commitment to sustainability and its impact on the community and the environment;��
and the company’s plans for future growth, innovation and expansion.��

The second part strips out the narrative components and presents the financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. The financial statements are particularly valuable to investors, as they provide detailed information about the company’s performance without obscuring it with any particular narratives or opinions. ��

The income statement shows the company’s revenue and expense accounts for a set period. Using trial balances from any two points in time, a business can create an income statement that tells the financial story of the activities for that period.��
The balance sheet shows the company’s assets, liabilities and owners’ equity accounts as at a specific date, illustrating the company’s financial position and health at that point.��
The cash flow statement provides a detailed picture of what happened to the business’s cash during an accounting period. Cash flows are important for valuing a business and managing liquidity and are essential to understanding where actual cash is being generated and used. ��

Sometimes, however, these standard sections are not enough. What about clients; how the company measures their satisfaction with the service, product range and prices? And the employees; what are the productivity and employee retention numbers? Metrics like these could be leading indicators of the company’s future performance, and that is exactly the kind of information that savvy stakeholders like to see. ��

Communicating with global stakeholders��

Our company’s experience with annual reports is not limited to the one I produce. A key part of our business is translating our client’s annual reports for their global stakeholders. The first quarter of the year is always the busiest period for this type of work and our teams can be booked up for months in advance as the reports are needed for distribution in multiple languages as soon as the original language versions have been written. The localisation of these documents not only requires financial acumen, but also storytelling skills, especially when it comes to presenting a clean narrative and a consistent client brand.  ��

Different language versions of the company’s annual report allow the business to reach a wider audience of investors, customers, suppliers and employees who may not speak the language in which the report was initially produced. If the company operates in multiple countries or has a significant presence in different regions, a multilingual report can help reinforce its global market presence. In some countries, there may even be legal requirements to provide financial information in specific languages. Providing the annual report in multiple languages ensures that stakeholders have a clear understanding of the company’s performance and strategy, regardless of their language proficiency. A well-designed, multilingual annual report can enhance the company’s brand image and reputation, demonstrating its commitment to communicating effectively and transparently with all of its stakeholders.��

How to write an annual report for global audiences��

When writing an annual report that will be translated into multiple languages, consider the following guidelines to make the translation process smoother:��

Use simple and clear language: Avoid using complex words, lengthy sentences and idioms that may not be easily translatable. Stick to plain and straightforward language.��
Be consistent: Use the same terminology throughout the report to avoid confusion during translation.��
Avoid cultural references: Cultural references may not translate well and will have to be recreated for different cultures, so it is best to avoid them.��
Use visuals: Visuals can help convey complex information in a more accessible way and can be understood without needing to be translated.��
Use headings and subheadings: Organising the report into clear sections and using headings and subheadings can help keep the content easy to follow.��
Work with a professional translator: Only collaboration with a trustworthy, qualified human translator will give you the peace of mind about the content being accurately translated and the intended message conveyed in an engaging way.��

Reports that engage stakeholders��

You may have noted that I deliberately didn’t claim that I write Sandberg’s annual report. Saying that would be taking the credit for the diligent work of our team managers who each prepare a management report for their department, which I then use to put together the final document by summing up their results and adding some context and narrative to them. ��

The tone and content of an annual report can give you interesting clues about the company in which you are thinking of entrusting your capital – or your working time and talent. Many CEOs work long and hard on their personal message which is often presented as a letter to the shareholders. This letter is the CEO’s chance to provide insight into the challenges and opportunities the company has encountered, an explanation of the causes behind the figures in the financial section and insight into the future of the business.��

If you’re not an investor but an employee working within a company, the annual report can impart valuable information pertinent to your career. Understanding how your company is performing and the impact your actions have had on its business objectives can help you advocate for a promotion or other form of career advancement.��

A company can enhance or damage its reputation and value through the way it behaves, but also by how it reports. If you manage to instill confidence with your content, you improve your chances of engaging stakeholders. Market research shows that there is a direct link between stakeholder engagement and market value. In a of 85 investment professionals, 80% said that their perception of the quality of a company’s reporting impacts their perception of the quality of its management. This indicates a clear correlation between trust, reputation and value. ��

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5 ways to get the most out of financial translation

Max Naylor — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 15:37:07 +0000

Translation of financial texts often requires a different approach: with highly specialised terminology, short deadlines and production of the source and target texts sometimes happening in parallel, there are plenty of points along the way where things could go awry.

We’ve spoken to some of our in-house translators and project managers who are most experienced in this domain to find out what their top tips are for getting a high-quality, timely financial translation.

1. A clear brief sets you up for success

Any translator will tell you the importance of a good brief. A clear set of instructions helps to contextualise the translation job – knowing who the target audience is, for example, may significantly alter the tone and register of the target text.

With more formulaic domains such as financial, however, there is a tendency to overlook the significance of a clear brief. English Translator Rebecca Janota explains: “There’s sometimes the misconception that translating financial texts is self-explanatory. However, a good brief plays a key role in ensuring that the correct terminology is used and that the translation conforms to the company’s style and branding.” She gives a specific example from German: “If the document concerns a SICAV fund, the German term Anteil should be translated as ‘share’, but if it’s classed as an FCP, the term ‘unit’ should be used.” Both SICAVs and FCPs are types of collective investment funds found in different European countries.

Siân Mackie, one of our Senior English Translators, agrees that briefs are helpful for getting the tone right: “Certainly with financial projects it’s always useful to have an idea of the target audience for the text so that you don’t accidentally overcomplicate or oversimplify when translating.”

For certain types of financial texts, such as annual reports,��(IFRS) have been adopted in many countries around the world. These standards require specific terms to be used for maximum clarity. Danielle Davis, our Nordic–English Team Leader, says: “Knowing whether IFRS terminology applies is very important. If a particular IFRS title is referenced, the correct English name should be used, not a literal translation of the source text.”

Providing copies of the source file laid out in its final form is also extremely beneficial. Our translators all agreed that this could have an impact on how things are translated. Rebecca says: “It’s always helpful to have the source to hand, particularly if it contains tables, graphs and other visual elements as this is not always obvious in a CAT tool.” Siân echoes her sentiments: “The PDF of the original document is really useful for checking how the text is laid out and whether things should be presented/translated in a particular way to ensure an optimum reading experience.”

2.��Don’t forget about confidentiality and other regulatory issues

Financial documents such as earnings publications and annual reports often contain information that is commercially sensitive, or even personal data on a private individual’s financial situation. Tom McNeillie, our English Account Linguist Team Leader, says: “Awareness of confidentiality and GDPR is recommended for this domain, especially if translators have access to potentially sensitive information regarding an individual’s wealth or before earnings press releases are published.”

To make sure data stays secure, avoid sending documents for translation in unencrypted email attachments. Instead use a safe file transfer method with access control or upload your documents to a cloud-based CAT tool. At Sandberg, we have technical and policy measures in place to ensure the security of your data at every stage of the translation process. Read more about our security arrangements in this PDF.

Other regulatory issues must also be borne in mind by both translators and those ordering the work. Terminology is something that’s vital to get right – using the wrong term cannot only cause misunderstandings, but may also have legal ramifications. Rebecca explains: “Translations of financial texts must not only respect the client’s style guide and preferred terminology but also comply with statutory regulations.”

“A common financial report that we translate is a Key Investor Information Document (KIID), which must strictly conform in format and content with EU regulations. The CESR’s and contain prescriptive wording as well as expressions to be avoided. These guides ensure that the translation is appropriate from a legal perspective.”

Often, we receive documents that have been previously translated and then sent back to us with updates and additions. Rebecca has a top tip when translating updates: “It’s essential to bear in mind that the previous translation may have already been approved by an authority (such as the in France), and so it’s vital you don’t gratuitously alter any of the previous content and closely adhere to the approved terminology.”

3. Know the limits of OCR

Various financial documents requiring translation may exist only in paper format. These are often scanned and processed using (OCR) to convert them into a digital editable format.

Tom notes the impact this can have on the translation process and the effectiveness of translation resources: “We do occasionally encounter segmentation issues due to poor OCR. Another consequence of poor OCR is that match percentages can be affected if characters/letters/words are not recognised correctly, leading to reduced translation memory (TM) leverage or the potential for inconsistencies within a text or TM.” In essence, the worse the quality of an OCR’ed text, the longer the translation process will take and the more potential there is for inconsistencies.

Danielle echoes Tom’s sentiments, adding: “Sometimes we still receive a scanned PDF that can’t be successfully OCR’ed, so we have to type up the text directly into Word. Old-school translation!”

While OCR can be a powerful time-saver, it’s worth bearing in mind that the quality of the output can vary and that this needs to be taken into account in the translation process.

4.��Allow as much time as possible

As a rule, financial translations need to be delivered to tight deadlines tied to seasonal events such as the end of the tax year or annual report deadlines. This generates a significant volume of work at the end of the calendar year all the way through to the spring.

Tom explains: “Short deadlines are often a challenge, with relatively little flexibility in the translation process. For the highest-profile corporate annual reports, the documents are often still being written very close to the time of going to press, so the translation is done simultaneously on draft versions. The work can then be subject to rounds of updates to bring it up to date with the client’s final version in the original source language.”

These additional rounds of updates and revisions can sometimes themselves bring unexpected issues to the surface. Rebecca notes: “What can appear to be a minor change to the source can have ramifications for the target, such as changing the syntax completely and requiring the sentence to be retranslated from scratch.” This is something to bear in mind when requesting updates – sometimes a couple of sentences take much more than a couple of minutes to translate.

Siân adds: “Financial texts can sometimes take a little longer to translate if there is a lot of specialist terminology and numbers that need careful checking, but generally speaking there are a lot of great resources for working on these types of texts.”

Financial translation services

We’ve got over 20 years’ experience in financial translation work. Our fast turnaround, expert linguists and robust security arrangements are the formula for success on your next financial project. Find out more.

5. Trust our experience and expertise

At Sandberg, we have over 20 years’ experience in translation and localisation, and have translated millions of words of financial text into the Nordic languages and from the Nordic languages, German and French into English. We’ve amassed deep knowledge and understanding of best practices for financial translation. One area where we shine is terminology management and the smart use of resources, both internal and external.

All our in-house translators agreed that the best available terminology resources for financial translation are , the EU terminology database which has an excellent search function, and , the searchable body of EU law. They also mention various IFRS guidelines, as well as general-purpose bilingual resources such as and .

We’ve built up comprehensive in-house term bases and translation memories that put these terms at the fingertips of our translators, and capture words and phrases that don’t appear in external online resources. Asked which resources she uses most for financial translation jobs, Danielle mentions her own personal glossary built up over a decade. She used this to create Sandberg’s internal term bases for Nordic–English jobs, making it easier for everyone in her team to find IFRS-compliant terms.

Tom also mentions his confidence in his colleagues’ knowledge of the financial domain. Asked how his team handles linguistic queries on the source text, he responds: “We would look at them ourselves in-house and try to answer them using our resources and expertise.” Only once this option has been exhausted would we contact the client for further clarification.

A lot of the guidance in this post can also be applied to other similar domains, such as legal translation. However, what’s clear is that financial translation has its own unique set of requirements brought about by a combination of short deadlines, rigid terminology and industry regulation. When selecting your partner for your next translation project, make sure it’s one that has the capacity and experience to deliver the quality of work you need, when you need it.

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Financial translation Archives - sa���ʴ�ý