What is a financial instruments transaction? Examples?

Answer 1

First, let's define a "financial instrument".

For all intents and purposes, the term can be used for "plain vanilla" financial transactions as well as any financial security.

Plain vanilla transactions include:
Checking
Escrow
Credit payment
Paying by cash (cash is a financial instrument)

More complex financial transactions include:
Futures (e.g. currency futures, interest rate futures)
Swaps (e.g. currency forwards, interest rate swaps)
Credit Derivatives (e.g. CBO)