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TECFEE: Translation and Interpretation of Financial Texts

TECFEE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Translation and Interpretation of Financial Texts

This domain tests translating financial texts between English and Chinese with terminological accuracy and natural style, plus short consecutive or sight interpretation. Marks are awarded for fidelity to meaning, correct terminology, accurate figures, grammatical control in the target language and appropriate register.

Numbers are the first risk

  • 1 billion = 10亿; 1 trillion = 1万亿; 亿 = 100 million; 万 = 10,000.
  • 同比 = year on year (YoY); 环比 = month on month or quarter on quarter, depending on the reporting period.
  • percentage points = 百分点; basis points = 基点 (100 basis points = 1 percentage point).
  • Re-read every figure against the source before finishing; a dropped zero is a substantive error, not a typo.

Fixed financial terminology

  • 净利润 net profit; 营业收入 operating revenue; 不良贷款率 non-performing loan (NPL) ratio
  • 存款准备金率 reserve requirement ratio; 资本充足率 capital adequacy ratio; 流动性 liquidity
  • 拨备回拨 release of loan loss provisions (write-back); 货币政策 monetary policy

Style shifts

  • Chinese favours verbs and short clauses; English favours nominalisation and passive voice. Convert rather than mirror.
  • "得益于" becomes "thanks to" or "helped by"; "有所改善" becomes "improved somewhat" - keep the hedge.
  • Keep one term for one concept throughout the passage; do not vary synonyms for style when the term is technical.

Worked example

Source: "该行一季度净利润同比增长5%，主要得益于拨备回拨。" Target: "The bank's net profit rose 5% year on year in the first quarter, mainly thanks to a release of loan loss provisions." Reasoning: 同比 is year on year, not month on month; 净利润 is net profit, not revenue; 拨备回拨 is a provision release or write-back, which raises profit; 得益于 marks cause, rendered as "thanks to". The past tense fits a reported quarter.

Traps that cost marks

  • Rendering 亿 as "billion" (it is 100 million), or billion as 亿 instead of 十亿.
  • Confusing 同比 with 环比, which reverses the comparison base.
  • Translating idioms word for word, producing text that is accurate in words but wrong in meaning.
  • Changing the subject or voice so that the agent of an action disappears.
  • Leaving a figure unverified, or mixing tense and person within one sentence.