Hedging with Interest Rate Swaps and Currency Swaps

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,0, Reutlingen University (sib - school of international business Reutlingen), course: International Financing, language: English, abstract: Risk management within companies is getting more and more important. The reasons for this development are varied. The most important factor is doubtless the internationalisation of companies. Acting on international markets offers on the one hand numerous chances for an enterprise but on the other hand it also holds an additional risk potential concerning losses. This negative aspect is mainly caused by a lack of information regarding political risk and exchange rate risk. Risk management is also necessary referring to change in interest rates. It is possible to limit, control and organize the interest rate risk as well as other risks of the company. As the financial outcome of a company gains importance risk management concerning interest rates and exchange rates is thus essential. To face these risks and other problems that derive of variations in stock markets, interest markets or exchange markets derivative instruments play a significant role. In April 2003 the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) published a survey of derivatives usage by the worlds 500 largest companies. According to this study 85% of the companies use derivatives to help manage interest rate risk and 78% of them use derivatives to help manage currency risk. Only 8% of the 500 largest companies do not use derivatives. There are many different kinds of financial instruments which are very complex in their function. This paper has its focus on interest rate and currency swaps. By using these instruments it is possible to hedge interest rate risks or currency risks. The first chapter gives an overview about existing derivatives and about the st