"Bruno Campanini" wrote:
The standard Excel financial functions (PV, FV, NPER,
PMT and RATE) do not take any "standard US banking"
practices into account, much less calculations based
on "bank profits instead of mathematical principles".

They do!
In my country (Italy) you can negotiate a financial operation
with a bank at 5% annually compounded.
Then if you change your mind and ask for semi-annually compounded
operation you see that the rate is <2.5% as per i2 = (1+0.05)^(1/2)-1
I've been told that normally that's not the case in US.

But such regional policies and laws are __not__ built into the Excel
functions, as you asserted incorrectly.

They merely affect the __periodic__ rate that we must choose to input to the
Excel functions.

In other words, the __user__ of the function, not Excel, determines how the
annual rate is interpreted and converted to a periodic rate.

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As for your rant about US practices, it is mostly incorrect or incomplete.

For investments, which Tamera is asking about (not loans), US law states
that the effective compounded "annual percentage yield" (APY) __must__ be
disclosed. The simple "interest rate" __may__ also be disclosed. If only
one rate is disclosed, it must be the APY.