cushions

The British government’s so-called money transfers prop up its poorer regions, keeping them from the kind of collapse suffered in euro zone nations like Greece.

Bankers oppose a buildup in capital cushions because it reduces the amount of money available for investing, and therefore eats into profits.

The board that sets U.S. accounting standards on Monday moved to end companies' use of a device that allowed them to park hundreds of billions of dollars in loans off their balance sheets without capital cushions and has been blamed for helping stoke banks' losses in the housing boom.