Glosario

El intercambio de divisas (también conocido como FX o forex, abreviatura del término inglés Foreign Exchange), es el intercambio de una moneda por otra.

Las divisas en el comercio internacional

El intercambio de divisas es una parte esencial del comercio internacional. Si una compañía china quiere efectuar un intercambio comercial con una francesa, las dos empresas están obligadas a ir al mercado de divisas para completar la transacción, que implica a la moneda china, el yuan o renminbi y a la divisa francesa, el euro.

A pesar de la importancia del comercio internacional, éste solo supone el 2% del total del volumen de actividad del mercado mercado de divisas. El 98% restante de las operaciones del mercado Forex son de carácter puramente especulativo.

1. Mercado de divisas de la economía realPor “economía real” entendemos los intercambios comerciales de naturaleza no especulativa, en otras palabras, las transacciones internacionales que tienen lugar como consecuencia de un intercambio de bienes y servicios a través de la frontera.
2. Mercado de divisas especulativoSe trata de la actividad de comprar y vender divisas basado en las expectativas de la evolución de su valor en el futuro. Una divisa que los especuladores piensan que se va a apreciar aumenta su demanda, lo que a su vez contribuye a que la divisa se aprecie.

Así pues, podemos considerar que los especuladores operan teniendo en cuenta lo que van a hacer otros especuladores en el mercado de divisas. El sentimiento del mercado, la confianza –o falta de ella- que los especuladores tienen en una determinada divisa es lo que, en último término, determina el valor de dicha divisa en el mercado, así pues, es la especulación, y no el intercambio comercial de la economía real, lo que domina el mercado de divisas.

Divisas:

El mercado de divisas se mueve regido por la evolución del tipo de cambio entre las divisas. Este tipo de cambio puede ser fijo o flexible.

Un tipo de cambio flexible es un régimen cambiario en el que el valor de la divisa se mueve sin restricciones de las autoridades monetarias que la emiten. Entre este tipo de divisas encontramos el euro, el dólar, la libra, los dólares australiano y canadiense o el yen japonés, entre otras.

Un tipo de cambio fijo es un régimen cambiario que está restringido por las autoridades monetarias para proteger el valor de su divisa. El tipo de cambio fijo es utilizado normalmente por economías más vulnerables. Los principales ejemplos de este tipo de política son Rusia, Brasil o China.

La variación en el tipo de cambio depende de diversos factores, incluyendo volúmenes de importación y exportación, tipos de interés, inflación, producción industrial y otros factores relacionados con la estabilidad política.

Datos relevantes del mercado de divisas

El mercado de divisas es el más grande del mundo, con un volumen de transacciones de 5.3 billones de dólares diarios, lo que equivale a 1.325 billones de dólares al año. En comparación, el PIB global nominal es de 75 billones de dólares anuales.
Aproximadamente el 40% de las transacciones en divisa que se hacen en el mundo tienen lugar en Londres, aunque el Reino Unido representa solo el 3,4% del PIB global. En comparación, en EE.UU. se procesan el 18,9% de las transacciones en divisa.
Las cinco divisas más utilizadas en pagos internacionales son: 1. Dólar de EE.UU. (44.6%); Euro (28.3%); Libra esterlina (7.92%); Yen japonés (2.69%); Yuan chino (2.17%).
El mercado forex mueve cada 14 días un volumen de divisas mayor que el PIB global.
El mercado forex es 28 veces mayor que el mercado bursátil global.

IAS 39 is the international accounting standard, established by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which sets out the requirements for recognising and measuring financial assets and liabilities, as well as some of the contracts to buy and sell non-financial items.In this respect, IAS 39 also establishes the conditions to apply hedge accounting as well as the procedures for its application.According to IAS 39, financial instruments are recognised in the financial statement when the organisation is a party to the financial instrument contract. Financial liabilities are removed from the statement when the obligation established in the contract extinguishes. In the case of financial assets, these are removed from the financial statement when the entity's contractual rights to the asset's cash flows expire.Financial assets and liabilities are initially measured at fair value. During the life of the instruments, they can be measured at amortised cost or at fair value, depending on the category of the financial instrument.In 2014, IAS 39 was replaced by IFRS 9.

The IFRS 9 Financial Instruments are the new accounting standards introduced by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in 2014, to replace the IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement, and their application has been mandatory from the 1 January 2018.These new standards determine the requirements for the recognition, measurement, impairment and derecognition of financial instruments as well as the conditions to apply hedge accounting.According to IFRS 9, financial assets and/or liabilities are recognised in a financial statement when the organisation becomes party to the financial instrument contract.At initial recognition, all financial instruments are measured at fair value. For financial assets or liabilities that are not at fair value through profit or loss, transaction costs that are directly attributable to the acquisition or issue of the asset or liability should also be factored in.Subsequent measurements are done at amortised cost, at fair value through other comprehensive income (FVTOCI) or at fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL), depending on the classification of the financial asset, which is determined at initial recognition. During the life of the contract, however, assets – but not liabilities – may be reclassified.

ISO 4217 is the standard established in 1978 by the International Organization for Standardization which defines the rules to create the three-character codes representing each one of the world currencies in circulation (except for several minor currencies, that are pegged to a bigger one).ISO 4217 is the code used by banks and businesses internationally to designate different currencies as well as airline tickets or other international travel tickets to avoid confusion with the price.The code is formed by three characters, the first two representing the country, while the third one represents the name of the currency. For instance, the code for the Australian Dollar combines the first two letters of the country (AU) and the third letter, (D) for the dollar.In the foreign exchange market, these codes eliminate potential confusion caused by common currency names shared like the dollar, peso, pound, or krona.

Inflation is an economic concept referring to the pace at which the prices of goods and services increase over time.A low, sustainable level of inflation is crucial for healthy economic growth, and therefore one of the main objectives of central banks' monetary policy is to maintain inflation close to a 2% annual rate.Inflation, however, reduces the purchasing power of the currency and so it may have very negative economic consequences if it rises too quickly.In some cases, sharp declines in foreign exchange rates have led to soaring import prices and ultimately to ballooning inflation. Venezuela and Zimbabwe are two examples of how these dynamics can hurt national economies. In these cases, when inflation reaches uncontrolled, very high levels, it is termed hyperinflation.On the other hand, low inflation can be equally detrimental to economic health. One danger is that inflation may lurch into deflation – a generalised decrease in prices of goods and services – which can bring untold problems to an economy. For example, Japan has been stuck in a deflationary cycle in recent years, keeping economic growth very low.

Interest rate risk is risk that moves in interest rates affect the value of fixed-income instruments such as bonds. Because the value of a bond is the present value of its discounted cash flows, an increase in interest rates (used as discount rates) automatically translates into a lower present value. In banking, interest rate risk is assessed both in terms of assets and liabilities. If, for example, short-term interest rates rise while long-term interest rates stay stable or fall, the net interest margin —and the bank’s profitability— would decline as a consequence.

An interest rate swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange interest payments (in the same currency) for a specific maturity on an agreed-upon notional amount. No principal is exchanged in an interest rate swap. The notional amount or notional principal is a reference amount needed to calculate the interest rate. The most common type of interest rate swaps are fixed-to-floating swaps, in which party A receives floating-rate payments from party B in exchange for fixed-rate payments from A to B. This is done in order to achieve savings on the total interest cost, as one party usually has a comparative advantage in borrowing at a fixed or floating rate. Using this relatively straightforward mechanism, interest rate swaps transform debt issues, assets and liabilities from fixed-to-floating or vice-versa.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent body responsible for the development and publication of a single set of global accounting rules. The rules, designed to provide transparent and comparable information in financial statements, are known as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The rules deal with the following points: . What information should be disclosed . How information should be presented . How assets should be valued . How profit should be measured The IASB’s hedge accounting guidance is known as IFRS 9. It aims at simplifying hedge accounting, aligning it more closely with entities’ risk management activities, and providing decision-useful information about an entity’s risk management strategies.

IBAN is the acronym for an International Bank Account Number, a universally recognised alphanumeric code used to identify a bank account. IBAN was designed to simplify international transactions, facilitate cross-border communication between banks and minimise the risk of transcription errors. An IBAN comprises up to 32 alphanumeric characters, includes a two-letter country code, two check digits and the detailed bank account-number used in wire transfers. This latter element is the longest section of the IBAN code, and is known as the Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN).

In corporate treasury, an invoice batch is a bundle of different invoices put together by the payer to be processed as one. Invoice batching improves process efficiency, saving time and effort by skipping repetitive tasks like data input and ultimately reducing the risk of human error.