Question

1. What is refinancing risk? How is refinancing risk part of interest rate risk? If an FI funds long-term assets with short-term liabilities, what will be the impact on earnings of an increase in the rate of interest? A decrease in the rate of interest?
   
2. What is reinvestment risk? How is reinvestment risk part of interest rate risk? If an FI funds short-term assets with long-term liabilities, what will be the impact on earnings of a decrease in the rate of interest? An increase in the rate of interest?
   
3. (a) Corporate bonds usually pay interest semiannually. If an FI decided to change from semiannual to annual interest payments, how would this affect the bond’s interest rate risk?
   (b) What is credit risk? Which types of FIs are more susceptible to this type of risk? Why?

Answer 1

1. What is refinancing risk? How is refinancing risk part of interest rate risk? If an FI funds long-term assets with short-term liabilities, what will be the impact on earnings of an increase in the rate of interest? A decrease in the rate of interest?

Ans: Refinancing risk is the uncertainty of the cost of a new source of funds that are being used to finance a long-term fixed-rate asset. This risk occurs when an FI is holding assets with maturities greater than the maturities of its liabilities. For example, if a bank has a ten-year fixed-rate loan funded by a 2-year time deposit, the bank faces a risk of borrowing new deposits, or refinancing, at a higher rate in two years. Thus, interest rate increases would reduce net interest income. The bank would benefit if the rates fall as the cost of renewing the deposits would decrease, while the earning rate on the assets would not change. In this case, net interest income would increase.

2. What is reinvestment risk? How is reinvestment risk part of interest rate risk? If an FI funds short-term assets with long-term liabilities, what will be the impact on earnings of a decrease in the rate of interest? An increase in the rate of interest?

Ans: Reinvestment risk is the uncertainty of the earning rate on the redeployment of assets that have matured. This risk occurs when an FI holds assets with maturities that are less than the maturities of its liabilities. For example, if a bank has a two-year loan funded by a ten-year fixed-rate time deposit, the bank faces the risk that it might be forced to lend or reinvest the money at lower rates after two years, perhaps even below the deposit rates. Also, if the bank receives periodic cash flows, such as coupon payments from a bond or monthly payments on a loan, these periodic cash flows will also be reinvested at the new lower (or higher) interest rates. Besides the effect on the income statement, this reinvestment risk may cause the realized yields on the assets to differ from the a priori expected yields.

3.(a) Corporate bonds usually pay interest semiannually. If an FI decided to change from semiannual to annual interest payments, how would this affect the bond’s interest rate risk?

Ans : The interest rate risk would increase as the bonds are being paid back more slowly and therefore the cash flows would be exposed to interest rate changes for a longer period of time. Thus any change in interest rates would cause a larger inverse change in the value of the bonds.

(b) What is credit risk? Which types of FIs are more susceptible to this type of risk? Why?

Ans: it is the risk that promised cash flows from loans and securities held by FI's may not be paid in full. FI's that lend money for long periods of time like life insurance companies or money market mutual funds.For example, life insurance companies and depository institutions generally must wait a longer time for returns to be realized than money market mutual funds and property-casualty insurance companies.