Business Finance Terms

Types of Credit Derivatives

In finance, a credit derivative is a securitized derivative whose value is derived from the credit risk on an underlying bond, loan or any other financial asset. In this way, the credit risk is on an entity other than the counter-parties to the transaction itself. This entity is known as the reference entity and may be a corporate, a sovereign or any other form of legal entity which has incurred debt. Credit derivatives are bilateral contracts between a buyer and seller under which the seller sells protection against the credit risk of the reference entity.

Similar to placing a bet at the racetrack, where the person placing the bet does not own the horse or the track or have anything else to do with the race, the person buying the credit derivative doesn’t necessarily own the bond (the reference entity) that is the object of the wager.… Read the rest

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Capital Profit and Revenue Profit

Meaning Of Capital Profits

The amount of profit earned by the business from the sale of its assets, shares, and debentures is capital profit. If assets are sold at a price more than their book values then the excess of book value is capital profit. Similarly, if the shares and debentures are issued at a price more than their face value, then the excess of face value or premium is capital profit. Such profit is not earned in the ordinary course of the business. It is not available for the distribution to shareholders as dividend. Such profits are transferred to capital reserve.… Read the rest

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Asset Swaps

Unlike interest rate swaps and basis rate swaps discussed earlier,   in which cash flows of debt obligation were changed, asset swaps are used to change the characteristics of an asset. For example, an investor with a ten year fixed Japanese yen bond may decide to enter into a currency swap to change his investment income into US dollar. The investor may feel that the Japanese yen will lose its value against the US dollar and would like to change his income into US dollar. Assume the current five year swap rate for US$ versus Japanese Yen to be 6.45-6.50%. The coupon rate of the investor’s bond is 7.00% and the bond has five years remaining.… Read the rest

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Basis Rate Swaps

A fast developing area in the international swap markets is the basis rate swap. The structure of the basis rate swaps is the same as the straight interest rate swaps, with the exception that floating interest calculated on one basis is exchanged for floating interest calculated on a different basis. The forerunner of this type of swap was the US Dollar Prime Rate LIBOR swap. However, an even larger market has developed for the exchange of 1 month US Dollar LIBOR for 6 month US Dollar LIBOR and more recently US Dollar LIBOR for US Dollar commercial paper at much finer rates than those available on the foreign exchange market.… Read the rest

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Agency Problem

Why conflict of interest between owners and management?

The control of the modern corporation is frequently placed in the hands of professional non-owner managers. We have seen that the goal of the financial manager should be to maximize the wealth of the owners of the firm and given them decision-making authority to manage the firm. Technically, any manager who owns less than 100 percent of the firm is to some degree an agent of the other owners. In theory, most financial managers would agree with the goal of owner wealth maximization. In practice, however, managers are also concerned with their personal wealth, job security, and fringe benefits, such as country club memberships, limousines, and posh offices, all provided at company expense.… Read the rest

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An Overview of Electronic Cash

The World is moving rapidly with vastly changing technological developments and innovations. We are currently experiencing an era, where everything is getting automated and digitalized. Along with this technological transition, international monetary system is one significant aspect that is getting transferred from its current state of paper based monetary system to electronic monetary/cash system. According to the 1994 report of European Central bank, electronic cash can be defined as an electronic store of monetary value on a technical device that may be widely used for making payments to undertakings other than the issuer without necessarily involving bank accounts in the transaction, but acting as a prepaid bearer instrument.… Read the rest

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