Financial Risk Management - Management of Interest Risk from a Corporate Treasury Perspective in a Service Enterprise

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction:The importance of a systematic risk identification, measurement and management as a management duty has increased in recent years. After risk management and interest risk management in particular was primarily relevant for banks in the past, it is a crucial competition factor for all enterprises today. Especially since the recent financial crisis treasurers are far more risk conscious and companies are reassessing their financial risk management procedures.The most important parameter for the cost of financing and the return of capital investments is the interest rate. However the interest rate is subject to fluctuations, what constitute the interest rate risk the company is exposed to. With increasing volatile financial markets and global competition CFOs are focusing more and more on an efficient measurement and management of interest rate risk.In this context this academic paper aims to point out the risks of an adverse change in interest rates for a corporate portfolio of interest-bearing positions and show possibilities to measure and manage these risks. The 2nd and 3rd sections set the scene for interest risk management in a corporate treasury of a service enterprise by providing essential knowledge about financial risk management and giving an insight into the characteristics of a service enterprise as well as the responsibilities of a corporate treasury and the factors that influence the treasury risk management approach. In section 4 and 5 respectively follows a process-oriented instruction of how to quantify interest rate risk and how to manage it. Besides the risk measures duration and convexity (4.2), two different approaches to value at risk, the historical simulation (4.3.2) and the variance-covariance-approach (4.3.3), will be examined. The value at risk is a measure to quantify risk that allows to express the risk exposure with a single absolute figure. For the management of the interest rate risk an overview of possible hedging instruments to reduce interest risk exposure will be given and their different strategies examined (5.1). All approaches will be measured against their practical feasibility and for both, the quantification and the management of interest rate risk, implications for the implementation in a service enterprise will be provided (4.5; 5.2). This will also be illustrated in a case study in section six. The conclusion serves for a critical reflection of all methods being […]