金融英語閱讀：套期保值

Banks and companies unfortunately have no control over interest rates. The only real difference between a bank and a company is that a company can plan for their borrowing requirements, whereas banks are at the mercy of the demand for credit. One way to reduce risk is to build flexibility into the operation. The other way is through hedging. Hedging is a way of reducing some of the risks involved with borrowing and investing. Generally in a market where interest rates fluctuate occasionally, there is usually little concern about funding risk or the need to consider hedging. This is because the certainty that hedging brings to the borrower also comes at a cost. In simple terms, a company should regard hedging as an insurance policy on their funding rate. One part about hedging that is often misunderstood, is that hedging is to reduce risk; it is not about making money. The main risk to a borrower is that the cost of borrowing may become higher than they can handle. To further illustrate this point, if a company made a good profit in one year because interest rates fell by 1%, what may have happened if they went up by 1%??This is where hedging can help.

非常不幸，銀行和公司沒有能控制住利率。銀行和公司唯一真正不同之處在于，公司能夠?yàn)槠浣杩钜笞鞒鲇?jì)劃，而銀行則完全受申請(qǐng)信貸的支配。降低風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的一個(gè)方法是建立操作的靈活性。另一個(gè)方法是通過套期保值。套期保值是降低某些與借款和投資有關(guān)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。一般來說，在一個(gè)利率偶爾波動(dòng)的市場(chǎng)里，通常不太關(guān)心籌資風(fēng)險(xiǎn)或考慮套期保值的需求。這是因?yàn)樘灼诒Ｖ祹Ыo借款人的確定性的同時(shí)，也需要借款人付出一定的代價(jià)。簡(jiǎn)單說來，公司應(yīng)將套期保值看作是其籌資利率的一份保單。有關(guān)套期保值，經(jīng)常被人誤解的一點(diǎn)就是套期保值能夠降低風(fēng)險(xiǎn);但不能夠賺錢。對(duì)借款人來說，主要的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)就在于借款的代價(jià)可能比他們能夠承受的還要高。為進(jìn)一步闡明這點(diǎn)，如果某公司在一年內(nèi)因利率下降了1%而獲得了豐厚的好處，那么如果利率上漲了1%可能會(huì)發(fā)生什么事情呢?這就是套期保值能夠起作用的地方了。