Glosario

A foreign exchange gain or loss (also written as FX gain or loss) is the financial impact that arises when a transaction is recorded at one exchange rate and subsequently settled or reported at a different rate.

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For any company that invoices customers or pays suppliers in a foreign currency, exchange rates rarely stay still between the moment a transaction is booked and the moment it is settled. That gap — days, weeks, or even months — is where FX gains and losses are born. If the rate moves in your favour, you record an FX gain. If it moves against you, you record an FX loss. Either way, the outcome is outside your control unless you actively manage it.

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Unrealised vs Realised FX Gains and Losses

FX gains and losses fall into two categories that matter both operationally and for financial reporting:

• Unrealised FX gain or loss — arises when open foreign currency transactions (invoices not yet paid or received) are revalued at the exchange rate prevailing on the balance sheet date. The gain or loss exists on paper but has not yet been settled in cash.
• Realised FX gain or loss — arises at the point of settlement, when the invoice is actually paid and the exchange rate at settlement differs from the rate at which the transaction was originally recorded. At this point, the gain or loss moves from unrealised to realised and flows through the profit and loss account.

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Why FX Gains and Losses Matter to Finance Teams

Even a company with healthy commercial margins can see its profitability eroded by unmanaged FX exposure. For mid-to-large businesses operating across multiple currencies, the cumulative effect of exchange rate movements on accounts payable and receivable can be significant — and unpredictable. This volatility makes forecasting harder, complicates budget-setting, and introduces noise into financial statements that makes it harder to assess true operating performance.

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Finance teams often distinguish between transaction exposure (the risk on individual invoices) and translation exposure (the broader effect of revaluing foreign currency assets and liabilities at period end). Both feed into the FX gain and loss line on the income statement.

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How Businesses Reduce FX Gains and Losses

The most direct way to limit FX gains and losses is through hedging — using forward contracts or other financial instruments to lock in an exchange rate for a known future transaction. However, managing hedges manually across dozens or hundreds of transactions is operationally intensive and prone to error.

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Currency Management Automation removes that burden by automatically linking FX hedges to individual trades as soon as they are priced or invoiced, ensuring that exposure is covered at the transaction level before it can become a problem. This approach — known as micro-hedging — is particularly effective at minimising the FX gain and loss line by reducing the time between when an exposure arises and when it is hedged.

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• See how businesses use micro-hedging to reduce FX gains and losses‍
• Explore Kantox Dynamic Hedging® to see how automated hedging works in practice

La Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) es el organismo regulador independiente encargado de supervisar la conducta de las empresas de servicios financieros en el Reino Unido, tanto en los mercados mayoristas como minoristas.

¿Por qué es importante la FCA para las empresas con actividad en divisas?

Para cualquier empresa que opere con proveedores de servicios financieros en el Reino Unido —ya sea para gestionar coberturas cambiarias, ejecutar pagos internacionales o contratar instrumentos derivados de divisas (FX)— saber si el proveedor está autorizado por la FCA no es un detalle menor: es una garantía fundamental de protección y solvencia operativa.

La FCA se financia íntegramente a través de las cuotas de las entidades que regula, lo que le otorga independencia tanto del gobierno británico como de los mercados a los que supervisa. Esta autonomía es clave para mantener su credibilidad como árbitro del sistema financiero.

Origen y marco regulatorio

La FCA nació en 2013 como sustituta de la Financial Services Authority (FSA), que fue abolida mediante la Ley de Servicios Financieros de 2012. Con esta reforma, el Reino Unido adoptó un modelo de supervisión dual: la FCA asumió la regulación de la conducta de mercado, mientras que la Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) —bajo el paraguas del Banco de Inglaterra— se hizo cargo de la supervisión prudencial de los bancos y aseguradoras de mayor relevancia sistémica. El Comité de Política Financiera (FPC) completó este nuevo triunvirato regulador.

Competencias principales

Entre las facultades de la FCA destacan las siguientes:

• Prohibición de productos o servicios financieros durante un periodo de hasta doce meses mientras evalúa una prohibición definitiva, lo que le permite actuar con rapidez ante riesgos emergentes para el consumidor.
• Supervisión de la conducta bancaria, con el objetivo de garantizar un trato justo al cliente, fomentar la competencia y detectar riesgos financieros antes de que generen daño sistémico.
• Autorización y registro de todas las entidades que prestan servicios financieros en el Reino Unido, desde bancos y gestoras de activos hasta proveedores de servicios de pago y empresas de gestión de divisas.

La FCA y los proveedores de servicios de divisas

Cuando una empresa trabaja con un proveedor especializado en gestión de divisas o cobertura cambiaria, la regulación de la FCA establece el marco de conducta que ese proveedor debe cumplir: transparencia en la ejecución de órdenes, salvaguarda de los fondos de los clientes y obligaciones de información claras. Verificar que el proveedor esté debidamente autorizado por la FCA —consultando el Financial Services Register público— es un paso de diligencia debida que ningún director financiero debería omitir.

Kantox Limited está autorizada y regulada por la FCA con el número de referencia FRN: 580343, como Entidad de Pago en virtud del Payment Services Regulations 2017.

Foreign currency revaluation is the accounting process by which a company re-expresses the value of its open foreign currency-denominated receivables and payables in its functional reporting currency, using the exchange rate prevailing at the end of each accounting period.

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Why it matters

For any business trading across borders, exchange rates rarely stay still between the moment a transaction is booked and the moment it is actually settled. That gap — sometimes days, sometimes months — creates a moving target on the balance sheet. Accounting standards (including IFRS and most local GAAP frameworks) require companies to keep an up-to-date picture of those open positions in their reporting currency. Foreign currency revaluation is the mechanism that makes this possible.

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Without it, a company's financial statements would carry receivables and payables at stale exchange rates, giving management and investors a distorted view of the firm's true financial position.

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How the process works

At the close of each accounting period, the finance team identifies all open monetary items denominated in a foreign currency — typically trade receivables, trade payables, intercompany loans, and bank balances. Each balance is then retranslated using the current spot exchange rate.

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The difference between the rate at which the transaction was originally recorded and the rate used for revaluation generates what is known as an unrealised FX gain or loss. This is "unrealised" precisely because the underlying transaction has not yet been settled — the cash has not changed hands. These unrealised amounts are posted to the profit and loss account (or, in some hedge accounting frameworks, to other comprehensive income).

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Once the transaction is actually settled — the invoice is paid, the loan repaid — the FX difference between the original booking rate and the settlement rate becomes a realised FX gain or loss, which is recorded on the income statement and the balance sheet accordingly.

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The management challenge

Foreign currency revaluation is, in the first instance, an accounting obligation. But for CFOs and treasurers, the numbers it produces carry a deeper strategic message: they are a direct measure of how much unhedged FX exposure is sitting on the books at any point in time.

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Large, recurring unrealised FX losses are often a signal that the company's hedging programme is not adequately covering the full trade cycle — from the moment a commercial commitment is made through to cash settlement. Businesses that hedge only at the payment stage, for example, may still be accumulating significant revaluation risk across their open order book.

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This is where the relationship between revaluation accounting and FX risk management becomes operational, not merely technical.

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Reducing revaluation volatility

One effective way to reduce the impact of foreign currency revaluation on reported earnings is to hedge FX exposures at the transaction level — as early as a firm sales or purchase commitment is confirmed — rather than waiting until a payment is due. This approach, sometimes referred to as micro-hedging, aligns the economic hedge with the accounting exposure, narrowing the gap between booked and settled rates.

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For businesses seeking to eliminate FX gains and losses from the P&L more systematically, Kantox's approach to reducing FX gains and losses covers the full workflow from exposure capture to automated hedge execution.

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Finance teams who also need to ensure their hedges qualify for hedge accounting treatment — and therefore route revaluation differences through other comprehensive income rather than the P&L — can explore how the Kantox Hedge Accounting Module supports audit-ready documentation and effectiveness testing.

El término prima a plazo, o “forward Premium” en inglés, se refiere a la diferencia positiva entre el valor de una divisa en el mercado al contado (spot) y el tipo al que se cambia mediante un seguro de cambio o contrato forward.

En un seguro de cambio, el precio que paga el cliente a vencimiento es el resultado del tipo de cambio en el momento de la firma del contrato al que se suman los puntos forward, calculados según el diferencial de tipos de interés de las dos divisas.

Esta es la fórmula para calcular los puntos forward de la prima a plazo:

Esto puede tener dos consecuencias:

1-    La divisa que el cliente quiere comprar tiene un tipo de interés más alto que la que quiere vender. En este caso, los puntos forward irán a su favor y, por lo tanto, el cliente recibirá un tipo de cambio más conveniente que comprando la divisa al contado el día de la firma del seguro de cambio. Esta diferencia es lo que se conoce como prima a plazo.

2-    La divisa que el cliente quiere comprar tiene un tipo de interés más bajo que la que quiere vender. En este caso, se aplica un descuento a plazo. A vencimiento recibirá un tipo de cambio menos conveniente tipo de cambio al contado el día de la firma del seguro de cambio.

Under Hedge Accounting, a fair value hedge is a hedge of the exposure to changes in the fair value of a recognized asset or liability or unrecognized firm commitment, attributable to a particular risk and could affect profit or loss. (The other main type of hedge is the Cash Flow hedge).

Fedwire is the abbreviation for the United State’s Federal Reserve Wire Network, a real-time gross settlement funds transfer system that settles funds electronically between any of the United States banks registered in the Federal Reserve System. Each transaction is processed individually and settled upon receipt via a highly secure electronic network. Settlement of funds is immediate, final and irrevocable.

Financial statement translation is the process through which a firm restates, —in the currency in which a company presents its financial statements—, all assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, gains and losses that are denominated in foreign currencies. This process of financial statement translation results in accounting FX gains and losses. There are three main financial statement translation methods available. With the current/noncurrent method, all the foreign exchange denominated current assets and liabilities are translated at the current exchange rate, while non-current assets and liabilities are translated at the historical exchange rate. With the monetary/nonmonetary method, monetary items such as cash, accounts receivable and payable, are translated at the current exchange rate, while nonmonetary items (inventory, fixed assets) are translated at the historical exchange rate. Finally, with the current rate method, all balance sheet and income statement items are translated at the current exchange rate. No matter what financial statement method is used, the resulting FX gains and losses are paper only, and rarely affect cash flows.

Fintech es un término formado por los vocablos ingleses “finance” y “technology”; tecnología y finanzas. Se aplica a aquellas empresas del sector financiero que se sirven de las últimas tecnologías para ofrecer productos y servicios pioneros e innovadores.

El concepto fintech ha adquirido gran relevancia en los últimos años y sus representantes han crecido exponencialmente, tanto en número como en cuota de mercado. Por ejemplo, la inversión global en empresas fintech se cuadruplicó desde los 3 millones de dólares en 2013 hasta los 12 millones en 2014.

La diversidad de servicios financieros que ofrecen las empresas fintech es amplia y se ha extendido con rapidez, desde los servicios de crédito hasta transferencias, gestión de inversiones y de capital.

Uno de los elementos característicos de las empresas fintech genuinas es la transparencia, a través de la cual buscan alterar el statu quo de un sector dominado por organizaciones tradicionales y en la mayor parte de los casos, de bajo desarrollo tecnológico.

El fuerte avance que ha experimentado el sector fintech y su crecimiento dentro del sector financiero tradicional tiene su raíz en los rápidos avances tecnológicos que han hecho posible esta innovación, pero no exclusivamente en este punto.

La crisis financiera global del 2007-09 ha tenido gran parte de la responsabilidad del crecimiento del sector fintech, principalmente debido a la restricción del crédito, que obligó a empresas y particulares a buscar vías alternativas de financiación, lo que contribuyó a crear uno de los servicios destacados de la industria fintech.

Estos son los principales servicios que ofrece el sector:

1. Transferencias de dinero
2. Financiación de capital
3. Créditos peer-to-peer
4. Tecnología móvil de pagos
5. Plataformas de trading e inversión

Hoy en día están surgiendo asociaciones de empresas fintech en los países en los que más desarrollado está el sector, con la finalidad de impulsar la inversión y la popularidad de sus servicios.

Fintech companies provide financial services using technological innovation. The rise of Fintech was made possible by the convergence of technological development and changes in financial regulation.Fintech companies essentially offer alternatives to traditional banking in services such as equity funding, lending, payments and foreign currency trading. What sets these new companies apart is their use of technologically sophisticated methods and an approach focused on the client, rather than on short-term profit.With that philosophy, the Fintech industry is challenging the traditional finance sector, which has long been dominated by banks, followed by brokers, wealth management firms, asset portfolio management firms and financial advisors.

A flexible forward contract, also known as an open forward contract, is a contractual agreement to buy or sell a specified amount of one currency against payment in another currency on or before a specified date in the future known as the ‘value date’. By contrast, when both parties are legally obliged to exchange the funds on the value date, the forward contract is said to be ‘fixed’, ‘closed’ or ‘standard’. In a flexible forward contract, the funds can be exchanged in one go (“outright”). Alternatively, several payments may be made over the course of the contract provided that the entire amount is settled by the maturity date. For example, a US company knows it will have to pay a number of invoices from a supplier based in the Eurozone during next year. I can decide to purchase a 12-month open USD-EUR forward contract, allowing it to make drawdowns to pay the supplier in euros, as and when necessary, over the course of the year.

A flexible hedging strategy or program is the hedging of future FX-denominated cash flows that result from contractually binding transactions, whether or not the corresponding receivables/payables have been created. In a flexible hedging program, forwards are booked against SO/POs (sales orders/purchase orders) and/or AR/AP (accounts receivable/accounts payable). Flexible hedging strategies or programs call for constant vigilance, as new orders keep on arriving. Their effective implementation is carried out with the help of Currency Management Automation solutions that provide end-to-end automation. On the opposite side of the spectrum, static hedging —where a big hedge is taken at the start of the period and is not reactivated until this period is over— is implemented once. Flexible hedging strategies or programs are particularly well suited for companies with low forecast accuracy where an FX rate is systematically part of its pricing parameters. Whether their pricing is frequently updated (bed banks in the travel industry) or not (ecommerce companies), these firms are mostly compelled to hedge on a transaction-by-transaction basis.