Waiver: Often in the form of a waiver letter whereby a party agrees to forego certain right or privileges. A bank, may for example waive its right of Recourse to another party in the event of non-payment.

Warehouse Receipt: A written receipt whereby a warehouse, depot or storage facility confirms that it has taken delivery of specified goods or commodities.

Waterfall: A methodology used in structuring financial transactions such as collateralised debt obligations, where investors can choose to invest in more or less risky tranches of a transaction in return for greater or lesser reward. In the event of a bankruptcy of the borrower, the cash available “cascades” in such a way as to pay out the holders of the various tranches in proportion to the risk they have taken, i.e. the least risky first, the most risky last.

Without Recourse / No Recourse: Where, in the context of an export financing operation, the financier takes on the risk of non-payment.

World Bank: See 'IBRD'.

WTO: World Trade Organization, the successor to GATT. Set up to foster free trade and combat restrictive international trade practices among member countries such as quota restrictions and import tariffs.