Foreign Exchange Risk

7 important questions on Foreign Exchange Risk

What are sources of foreign exchange risk exposure?

- Assets
- Liabilities
- Contracts bought (long)
- Contracts sold (short)

Overall net exposure = (FX Assets - FX Liabilities) + (FX Bought - FX Sold).
It could also offset an imbalance in its foreign asset-liability portfolio by and opposing imbalance in its trading book so that its net exposure position in that currency would be zero.

Net long in a currency or net short in a foreign currency (later has the risk that the foreign currency could rise in value).

What about FX volatility and exposure?

Meausre the potential size of an FX exposure by analyzing the asset, liability and currency trading mismatches on its BS and the underlying volatility of exchange rate movements.

If demand is high and supply low a currency will appreciate in value.

Foreign asset and liability positions?

Any mismatches between its foreign financial asset and foreign financial liability portfolios. Can be exploited in opportunities for higher returns on assets or lower funding costs. Besides duration matching, matching currencies is vital to prevent FX risk. Return could be far MORE or far LESS even in the absence of interest rate of credit risk.
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How about hedging FX?

Basically two methods:
- on balance sheet hedging (restoring mismatch)
- off balance sheet hedging (take positions in forwards to hedge FX risk on cashflows)

What about on-balance sheet hedging?

Banks can lock in a positive return when setting the net foreign exchange exposure on the balance sheet to zero (delta neutral), but the NET RETURN IS STILL VOLATILE. The bank is still exposed to FX risk. But always positive!! Just because of the volatility in the eventual translation risk.

What about using forwards, off-balance sheet hedging?

As a lower-cost alternative, it could hedge by taking a position in the forward market for foreign currencies. A contingent off-balance sheet claim.

How does it work? Sell forward its expected principal and interest earnings on the loan at today's known forward exchange rate. By this the bank removes the future spot exchange rate uncertainty (FX risk).

What about multicurrency foreign asset-liability positions?

Diversification across many asset and liability markets can potentially reduce the risk of portfolio returns and the cost of funds.

Theoretically speaking, nominal interest rate has two components;
- Real interest rate (reflects underlying real sector demand and supply for funds in that currency)
- Expected inflation (lenders demand from borrowers to compensate for the erosion in the principal or real value of the funds they lend.

In general correlations tend to increase during crisis.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

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