Risk Management

Foreign Exchange

Foreign exchange risk, whether arising from trade, overseas investments, balance sheet or translation exposure requires active monitoring and management. Our experienced team of risk management specialists will work with you to develop a strategy that meets your requirements in terms of currency, transaction characteristics and timing. We use a broad range of solutions, including spot, forward, over the counter currency options and cross-currency swaps.

Our product suite includes:

Over 70 currency pairs
Spot, Forwards, Swaps
Options and Exotics

Should you prefer to manage your day to day FX needs online, our Corporate Online offering brings together all of your domestic and currency accounts, including any FX requirements, in one purpose-designed online application.

To find out more please contact Corporate Banking customer enquiries or speak to your Corporate Banking relationship manager directly.

Interest Rates

One of the core financial risks faced by most Corporates and Institutions is exposure to interest rate fluctuations. Our extensive team of market specialists can work with you to achieve your desired risk profile. The solutions we employ to manage your risks range from fixed rate lending and interest rate swaps to more structured interest rate derivatives, allowing the most appropriate hedging strategy to be achieved for your business.

Interest rate risk solutions available include:

Interest rate, Basis, and Cross-currency Swaps
Vanilla & Exotic Options
Up to 30+ years in all major currencies

To find out more please contact Corporate Banking customer enquiries or speak to your Corporate Banking relationship manager directly.

Commodities

We offer both hedging and risk management solutions in the commodities markets. Incorporating swaps, options or combinations thereof, either as part of a tailor-made financing strategy or stand-alone, commodity producers/consumers are able to fix a selling/buying price over a desired time horizon thereby mitigating market price risk.

Markets covered include (but are not limited to):

Crude oil (Brent and WTI)
Refined Products (Diesel, Fuel Oil, Jet Fuel)
Natural Gas (UK NBP and US Henry Hub)
Freight (Wet and Dry cargo routes)
Precious metals (Gold and Silver)

Interest rate and foreign exchange risk management solutions are also available via our multi-currency trading desks in London, New York and Sydney.

To find out more please contact Corporate Banking customer enquiries or speak with your Corporate Banking relationship manager directly

Inflation

Inflation can create significant cash-flow and valuation uncertainty particularly where income or costs are directly linked to an inflation index such as the UK Retail Price Index (RPI). Examples would be obligations under index linked property leases and the unitary payments paid to project companies under certain PFI (Private Finance Initiative) concessions.

We can work with companies that have indexed linked income or liabilities and fix the inflation risk via an index-linked swap, thereby giving certainty of cashflow. In the property sector, where rent reviews are commonly linked to movements in RPI, we can use index linked swaps to exchange these inflation-linked rents for fixed receipts. This gives certainty of cashflow which may help the landlord achieve higher LTV (loan-to-value) ratios as against an unhedged index-linked income stream.

We provide inflation hedging and risk management solutions (swaps and options) across major UK and European inflation indices.