Types of Credit Derivatives

In finance, a credit derivative is a securitized derivative whose value is derived from the credit risk on an underlying bond, loan or any other financial asset. In this way, the credit risk is on an entity other than the counter-parties to the transaction itself. This entity is known as the reference entity and may be a corporate, a sovereign or any other form of legal entity which has incurred debt. Credit derivatives are bilateral contracts between a buyer and seller under which the seller sells protection against the credit risk of the reference entity. Similar to placing a bet at the racetrack, where the person placing the bet does not own the horse or the track or have anything else to do with the race, the person buying the credit derivative doesn’t necessarily own the bond (the reference entity) that is the object of the wager. He or she Continue reading

The Capital Account component in Balance of Payments (BoP)

Capital account records public and private investment, and lending activities. It is the net change in foreign ownership of domestic assets. If foreign ownership of domestic assets has increased more quickly than domestic ownership of foreign assets in a given year, then the domestic country has a capital account surplus. On the other hand, if domestic ownership of foreign assets has increased more quickly than foreign ownership of domestic assets in a given year, then the domestic country has a capital account deficit. It is known as “financial account”. IMF manual lists out a large number of items under the capital account. But India, and many other countries, has merged the accounting classification to fit into its own institutional structure and analytical needs. Until the end of the 1980s, key sectors listed out under the capital account were: (i) private capital, (ii) banking capital, and (iii) official capital. Private capital Continue reading

Evaluate a Businesses Overall Financial Performance Using Profitability Ratios

An accounting ratio is made by dividing one account’s transactions into another. The aim is to achieve a comparison that is easy as well as beneficial to clarify. Evaluate ratios for one Industry enterprise over several years. A graph of the ratio may allow a long-term trend. The same ratio is from many firms of similar size in the same industry. These ratios are used to assess performance and, with other data, forecast prospect profitability. Along with that is the future viability in addition to the soundness, which will repay loans as well as credit, additionally pay the interest along with dividends. Since profits are divided amongst shares, the profit per share indicates a possible dividend. While profitability ratios “evaluate a business’ overall financial performance through appraising its capability to produce revenues in surplus of service costs as well as other expenses. There are at least four profitability ratios, which Continue reading

Evaluating a Company’s Capital Structure using Ratios

A business organization may be financially sound today but it may loose strength tomorrow because of losses. Therefore it is necessary to maintain a judicious balance between the owned capital and borrowed capital. The following ratios have been calculated to analyze the capital structure of a company. 1. Capital Gearing Ratio Capital Gearing Ratio of an organization measures the relationship between equity share capital to preference capital and loan capital. ‘Capital gearing’ refers to the ratio between the variable cost bearing capital and fixed cost bearing capital of the organization and helps to frame the capital structure of the organization. Capital gearing may be of three types: High Gearing Capital, which indicates the excess of interest bearing long-term finance over the equity funds; Low Gearing Capital, which indicates the excess of equity funds over the interest bearing long-term finance; and Evenly Geared, which indicates the equality between the interest bearing Continue reading

SWOT analysis of Universal Banking in India

The solution of Universal Banking was having many factors to deal with which further categorized under Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT); Strengths: Economies Of Scale: The main advantage of Universal Banking is that it results in greater economic efficiency in the form of lower cost, higher output and better products. Various Reserve Banks Committees and reports in favor of Universal Banking, is that it enables banks to exploit economies of scale and scope. It means a bank can reduce average costs and thereby improve spreads if it expands its scale of operations and diversifying activities. Profitable Diversions: By diversifying the activities, the bank can use its existing expertise in one type of financial service in providing other types. So, it entails less cost in performing all the functions by one entity instead of separate bodies. Resource Utilization: A bank possesses the information on the risk characteristics of the clients, Continue reading

Setting a Reasonable Profit Target in Business

A business firm has various objectives to achieve. The survival of a firm depends on the profit it can make. So, whatever the goal of the firm may be, it has to be a profitable firm. The other goals of a business firm can be sales revenue  maximization,  maximization  of firm’s growth,  maximization  of managers’ utility function, long-run survival, market share or entry-prevention. In technical  sense    maximization  of profit, as a business objective, may not sound practical , but profit has to be there in the objective function of the firms for its survival. The firms may differ on the level of profit and the extent to which it is to be achieved by various firms. Some firms set standard profit as their objective, while some of them may set target profit and some reasonable profit as their objective to be achieved. A reasonable profit, as a business objective, Continue reading