Glossary
Navigate the complex world of currency management with our comprehensive dictionary of financial terms and definitions.
Stagflation is a term used to describe an economy that is stagnant and experiences little to no economic growth.Signs of stagflation include high rises in the price of consumer goods and services through high inflation, a reduction in gross domestic product and high unemployment.It is exceptionally difficult to move a country out of a stagflated economic state, as the methods used to promote greater economic growth - for instance, to lower inflation - may have a detrimental effect on unemployment figures.Stagflation in JapanJapan's economy has remained largely stagnant since 1990, after a national asset price bubble crisis. The nineties became known as Japan's "lost decade", which has now stretched out over the better part of three decades, as the country has still not been able to return to sustained economic growth.Successive Japanese governments have attempted a plethora of policies in order to try to kick-start the economy, largely to no avail.
In the terminology of fx risk management, a stop-loss order is triggered whenever an adverse movement in the exchange rate automatically triggers the execution of a forward contract aimed at protecting the exposure against further unfavourable movements. When protecting the budget, Stop Loss orders are often set by management when the firm faces a scenario of unfavourable forward points. In such a situation, delaying hedges makes sense.
When the market rate reaches the ‘tolerance level’ set by the firm’s risk managers, the stop-loss order is triggered and the hedge is executed. Because it is triggered only if a certain level of the exchange rate is met, a stop-loss order is said to be a conditional order. In Currency Management Automation, stop-loss orders are paired with take-profit orders (another type of conditional order) aimed at locking-in favourable exchange rate movements.
In order to avoid duplicating the volume of hedging, stop-loss and take-profit orders automatically cancel each other. For this reason, they are known as ‘OCOs’, or One-Cancels-the-Other.
A subsidiary is a company, corporation or limited liability company whose controlling interest is owned by another company.The company with a controlling interest (more than 50% of the subsidiary's voting stock) is known as the parent company.The subsidiary, which is recognised as a legal entity in its own right, must comply with the national laws, and any local laws if necessary, of where it is located, regardless of where the parent company is based.One of the dilemmas faced by any company going international and setting up a subsidiary in a country with a different currency to that of the parent company is currency management. The equities, assets and liabilities of the subsidiary are subject to foreign currency risk if they need to be converted into the parent company's functional currency for accounting reasons.Depending on the company’s internationalisation strategy, it may be more advantageous to finance the subsidiary directly from the parent company, or for the subsidiary to bank locally.
Swap automation makes reference to the automated coordination and adjustment of payment and collection timing to optimise cash flow management in conjunction with foreign exchange hedging activities. This technology ensures that settlement dates for hedging instruments align optimally with underlying commercial cash flows, reducing funding costs and improving overall treasury efficiency whilst maintaining hedge effectiveness.
Ensuring a perfect match between the settlement of commercial transactions and the corresponding FX hedges —especially if the latter were taken long before— is next to impossible. To bridge the gap between these positions, swapping is necessary. It is the ‘cash flow moment’ of FX risk management. Swaps allows treasury teams to either: perform early draws on existing forwards or roll over existing forward positions.
However, swapping is complex and resource-intensive. This complexity carries operational risks —including fraud risk— derived from manual execution. That is why they need swap automation to free up resources and remove a series of operational risks and costs. Whether they need to anticipate or roll over FX derivatives transactions linked to payments/collections, treasurers can execute the process in just one click using Kantox’s Currency Management Automation solution.
The tail risk is the probability and potential impact of extreme, low-probability currency movements that fall outside normal market expectations and could cause disproportionately large losses. Tail risk events are characteristically unpredictable and can overwhelm standard hedging strategies, requiring specific consideration in risk management frameworks and potentially specialised hedging approaches or contingency planning.
Lack of automation may lead finance teams to neglect some currency pairs that can be a major source of FX risk.
In fx risk management, a take-profit order is a conditional trading instruction that automatically secures favourable exchange rates when markets move in the organisation's favour beyond specified levels. These type of conditional orders enable companies to benefit from positive currency movements whilst maintaining systematic budget rate protection, effectively allowing for potential outperformance of budget targets when market conditions are advantageous.
In Currency Management Automation, take-profit orders are paired with stop-loss orders (another type of conditional order) aimed at locking-in favourable exchange rate movements. In order to avoid duplicating the volume of hedging, stop-loss and take-profit orders automatically cancel each other. For this reason, they are known as ‘OCOs’, or One-Cancels-the-Other.
A target redemption forward is a foreign exchange product that allows the holder, usually a corporate, to buy or sell a currency at an enhanced rate for a number of expiry dates, with zero upfront premium. The product automatically expires if the enhanced rate reaches a target level. But if spot moves in the wrong direction, holders can be forced to trade regularly at unfavourable rates for the full life of the product. Target Redemption Forwards are not the most appropriate hedging instrument for a company looking to minimise exchange rate risk. Companies looking for protection themselves against FX risks should opt for more straightforward alternatives like outright forwards or flexible forward contracts.
A trade repository (TR) is defined by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) as “an entity that centrally collects and maintains records of securities financing transactions”. For the TR, this means validating, storing and matching transaction reports, making those reports available to authorised regulators and aggregating and anonymising the reported data as public information. Trade Repositories play an important role in enhancing the transparency of derivative markets and securities financing markets, and thus of the financial system. For this reason, they are heavily regulated by the government agencies in charge of financial markets supervision.
Trading platforms, also known as electronic trading platforms, are software programs provided by third parties that allow investors and traders to access, monitor and operate in the financial markets in exchange for a fixed fee, at a discount rate or, in some cases, for free.The Internet and financial technology developments have provided investors with the possibility of trading by themselves using a wide choice of online platforms. Some even provide services including information, research and recommendations of specific stocks or mutual funds (groups of stocks) for investment.Rather than trading through a broker or an investment bank, platforms such as Nutmeg are becoming more and more common among market participants. The Foreign exchange market has experienced spectacular growth in recent years as the advent of online forex trading platforms has boosted the volume of retail operations.
Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) is the study of trade prices to determine whether past trades were arranged at favourable prices—low prices for purchases and high prices for sales. At the heart of TCA is the difference between the cost of the transaction at the time the manager decided to execute it and the actual cost, including all operating charges—spreads, commissions and fees. The resulting differential is called “slippage”. Currency Management Automation solutions aim at both minimising trading costs —by providing connectivity to best-price execution platforms— and providing the necessary data to conduct Transaction Cost Analysis.
Transaction exposure is the degree to which future FX-denominated cash flows from contractually binding transactions are affected by currency fluctuations. Transaction exposure exists whether or not the corresponding receivables/payables have been created.
Some elements of transaction exposure are included in the firm’s accounting exposure. This is the case of AR/AP receivables/payables) that have been created and appear on the balance sheet. Other elements of transaction exposure, such as contractually binding SO/PO (sales/purchase orders) not appearing on the balance sheet, are part of the firm’s operating exposure).
Transaction exposure, because of its significance in terms of profit margins and cash flows, is the most widely hedged FX exposure.
