The nominal interest rate (also known as an Annualised Percentage Rate or APR)*{ASIDE: This doesn't look right: the APR is an annualized rate that lumps in all charges (fees, initial costs, and so on) and is always a rate used for comparison between lenders, rather than the nominal interest rate, which is quoted by lenders and is the actual rate used in the calculation of, say, monthly payments} is the periodic interest rate multiplied by the number of periods per year.