Currency controls, foreign exchange controls or currency exchange controls refer to restrictions applied by some governments to ban or limit the sale or purchase of foreign currencies by nationals and/or the sale or purchase of local currency by foreigners. Currency controls are mostly used by governments who fear that free convertibility could lead to unwanted currency appreciation or volatility, also known as ‘trade competitiveness and macroprudential’ objectives. Currency controls often pose serious challenges to international companies, either by hindering cash transactions or by making it difficult to use financial instruments such as currency forward contracts to hedge FX risk.