小额贷款机构外汇风险管理和小额信贷投资基金[外文翻译].docVIP

原文： The Management of Foreign Exchange Risk by Microfinance Institutions and Microfinance Investment Funds The term “MFI” is used broadly in this chapter to encompass institutions that provide small-scale financial services, such as loans, savings, insurance, remittances and other services (generally in amounts less than 250 % of GNP per capita). The term encompasses a wide variety of organizations: NGOs, credit unions, non-bank financial intermediaries, rural banks, etc. Most microfinance investment funds (MFIFs) and other funders such as official development agencies finance their activities in US dollars (USD) or Euros (EUR), which may be called “hard currencies.”However, most microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate in nondollarised or non-Euro-based economies and lend local currency to their clients. Funding in one currency and lending in another, and the probability that the relative values of the two currencies will alter, creates foreign exchange (FX) risk. Volatile currency exchange rate fluctuations in many countries where MFIs operate make FX risk a serious issue, but one that has often been accorded little urgency in microfinance. The accelerated development of microfinance through access to capital markets makes it imperative that foreign exchange be managed in ways that are consistent with best practice in finance. Until this is widely achieved, access to capital markets for the benefit of microfinance will be retarded. Foreign exchange risk is one of many risks that MFIFs face. Interest rate risk is an additional risk that is related to FX risk. As currency values change, interest expense or income will also change. And, spreads between interest rates on both sides of the balance sheet may change, that is, interest rates on money borrowed in one currency by a microfinance institution, for example, may diverge from interest rates on money loaned to micro entrepreneurs by the MFI. Each of these effects has implications for MFIF and MFI profitability