Financial Institutions and Markets
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Financial Institutions and Markets
Seminar 3:
Risk, interest rates & yields
Reading: Topic 3 Reading List
Learning objectives
• Understand utility, risk and return
• Understand what determines interest rates
• Explain and construct the term structure of
interest rates
• Define and contrast the term structure of
interest rate related theories: unbiased/pure
expectations; market segmentation; liquidity
premium.
2
Utility, risk, and return
3
Utility
• Utility measures the satisfaction people receive from
consuming a good or service.
• Different individuals typically obtain differing amounts
of utility from the same source.
• We would like to maximize expected utility.
4
Utility (cont.)
• We would like to maximize expected utility.
• Marginal utility: the additional utility gained from the
consumption of one additional unit of a good or
service.
• Once having reached a certain level of satisfaction,
one’s satisfaction from additional units may start slow
and then even decline – diminishing marginal utility.
5
Diminishing marginal utility
It would seem possible to reach a position of
decline or negative marginal utility
6
Diminishing marginal utility
7
Quantity
Utility
Risk preferences
• You are given the choice between two scenarios.
– In a guaranteed scenario, you will receive $50.
– In the uncertain scenario, you have a 50/50
chance of either receiving $100 or nothing.
• The expected payoff for both scenario is $50.
• Are expected utility the same? – It depends on risk
preference.
8
Risk preferences
• Risk averse: [u(0)+u(100)]/2 < u(50)
9
Utility
u(100)
u(50)
u(0)
0 50 100 $
You have $50
The extra utility
from + $50 to get to
$100 is smaller in
magnitude than the
utility reduction
from - $50 to get to
$0.
Risk preferences
• People’s attitudes toward risk varies with their utility.
• Most investors are risk-averse – this means they
prefer less risk to more risk.
• Some, however, may be risk-neutral or indifferent to
risk.
• Still others may be risk-seeking and actually prefer
more risk to less.
10
Risk and return preference
• As most people are risk averse, they will only take a
risk if they expect an adequate reward.
• For a given level of return, risk averse individuals prefer
investments with lower risk;
• For a given level of risk, risk averse individuals prefer
investments with higher return.
11
Risk and return preference (cont.)
• The more expected risk that risk averse individuals
assume, the higher should be their expected return.
• Through proper risk management, risk can be
reduced/minimized but it cannot (in most cases) be
completely eliminated.
12
Risk and return
• Measure of return: Expected value or mean
• Measure of risk: The scattering of the other
possibilities around the expected return
variation of returns or standard deviation of
returns.
13
Risk and return (cont.)
• Measure of risk: variation of returns or
standard deviation of returns.
– Standard deviation is a measure of total risk.
– However, a person should not be rewarded for
bearing risk that could have been diversified away
by investing in different assets
– Beta (non-diversifiable/ systematic risk) is a better
measure of risk.
14
Calculating return
• Historical average return:
= 1 + + ⋯
• Expected return is the weighted average of
all possible returns :
( ) = ( × )
15
Calculating risks
16
Determinants of
Interest Rates
17
Basis points & interest rates
• Interest rates (IRs) are expressed as percentages,
but those changes less than 1.00% are referred to
as basis points (bpts).
• There are 100 basis points in one per cent.
• For example, the Reserve Bank typically adjusts its
target cash rate by moves of 0.25% or 25 basis
points.
18
Determinants of interest rates
• The interest rate is the price of money and it reflects
the simple equilibrium between the supply and
demand for funds within a specific market.
• An increase in demand for credit will cause interest
rates to rise while a decrease should see interest
rates decline.
• Similarly, an increase (decrease) in supply of funds
will cause interest rates to fall (rise).
19
Further determinants
• What actually determines this supply and demand
for money has been the subject of considerable
research.
• These can be divided into:
– overall factors that impact on all rates
• such as overall economic growth, inflation, overseas
rates etc.
– instrument specific factors.
• such as issuer’s credit risk, liquidity risk of the
instrument, other instrument characteristics.
20
Overall determinants of IRs
• Government monetary policy
• Inflation (actual and expected)
• Overseas interest rates (FX rates)
• External current account and balance of
payments
21
Monetary policy
• Monetary policy involves setting the interest
rate on overnight loans in the money market
(‘the cash rate’).
• The cash rate influences other interest rates in
the economy, affecting the behaviour of
borrowers and lenders, economic activity and
ultimately the rate of inflation.
(Source: RBA website)
22
The Cash Rate
• The cash rate is the unsecured overnight
interbank lending rate.
• The cash rate is important because:
– It measures the return on the most liquid of
financial assets (bank reserves)
– It is integral to monetary policy
– It directly reflects the available reserves in the
banking system, which influences banks’
decisions on making loans.
23
RBA Official Cash Rate
24
Monetary policy objectives
• There are three main objectives that the RBA
tries to achieve with its monetary policy:
– The stability of the currency of Australia
– The maintenance of full employment in Australia
– The economic prosperity and welfare of the people
of Australia.
25
Inflation
• Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices
for goods and services increase.
• Its direct effect on nominal interest rates is that it
erodes the real value or “purchasing power” of
financial assets
26
Inflation (cont.)
• Fisher Effect : (1 + i ) = ( 1 + r )( 1 + )
where: i = nominal rate of interest
r = real rate of interest
= expected inflation rate
often simplified to: i = r +
• The indirect effect of increased inflation is that it may
signal an overheating of the economy.
27
Australian Consumer Price Inflation (CPI)
Source: Reserve Bank of Australia
28
Overseas rates
• Investors today look at returns in a global context.
If the risk & return benefits are better elsewhere,
they will move their money from one country to
another.
• This movement impacts on the local supply and
demand for money.
• It also has a major effect on foreign exchange rates.
29
Balance of payments
• Australia’s external accounts with the rest of the
world are reflected in its balance of payments &
external debt.
• While this impacts both on local foreign exchange
and interest rates, these factors have not been
considered as important as other factors by the
Reserve Bank of Australia in the past.
30
Term Structure of
Interest Rates
31
Term structure of interest rates
32
• Definition: The term structure of interest rates
expresses the relationship between interest rates and
different maturities.
• Also known as a yield curve.
• This structure assumes that everything else remains
the same.
• It is usually based on the relationship between
interest rates on zero-coupon bonds and the maturity
of those bonds.
• Long-term coupon bonds can be looked at as a series
of zero-coupon bonds with different maturities.
Zero coupon bonds
• A zero-coupon bond is
a bond where the face value is repaid at the time of maturity, &
an investor receives no interest (coupon) payments over the life
of the bond.
• The investor buys the zero-coupon bond by paying less than the
bond’s face or redemption value (FV).
= !
33
Zero coupon bonds (cont.)
• Why zero coupon bond is used?
For yield curves, we need to remove all possible variations in
returns to keep the analysis simple.
With a coupon bond, the interest is paid regularly and then must
be reinvested – typically at different rates;
whereas a zero coupon has no reinvestment problems as there
are no payments!
34
Yield curves
• A yield is the total return from an investment.
• A yield curve depicts the relationship between
the interest rates and,
most commonly, different debt maturities
for a given borrower in a given currency.
• A more formal mathematical presentation of this
relationship is explained by the term structure of interest
rates.
35
Types of yield curves
• Upward sloping or normal
• Downward sloping or inverse
• Flat
• Humped - some combinations of the above
36
Time to maturity
Y
i
e
l
d
Humped Yield Curve
Upward sloping in practice
• A ‘normal’ yield curve is one in which longer maturity
bonds have a higher yield compared to shorter-term
bonds due to the risks associated with time.
• Historically, when yield curves steepen its slope, this
suggests improved economic growth.
• It is often seen at the start of economic expansion
periods,
because the expected growth will eventually force up interest
rates in the future.
37
Downward sloping in practice
• An inverse yield curve is one in which the shorter-term
yields are higher than the longer-term yields.
• Normally found when investors expect the economy to
deteriorate – a recession is expected.
• Long-term investors will accept reduced rates of longer
term interest rates now as they expect future long
term rates to decline further.
38
Flat yield curve in practice
• A flat yield curve means that the yield to maturity on
all debt instruments (for example, government
securities) is the same or very close to each other.
• This suggests that investors expect no specific change
in interest rates or rather there is no certainty on
future rates.
• In practice, it often foreshadows a slight decline in
rates.
39
Humped yield curves
• This is where the yield curve
1. either initially rises and then falls, or alternatively,
2. falls in the short term and then rises in the long term.
• This may also reflect some degree of uncertainty
about future rates
but reflects some preference for shorter rates in the first
case.
40
Australian Government Bond Yield Curve
41
Source: http://www.worldgovernmentbonds.com/country/australia/
Term Structure
Theories
42
Theories on term structure
• Three main theories that attempt to
explain term structure and its changes:
– Unbiased or pure expectations theory
– Market segmentation theory
– Liquidity premium theory
43
Pure expectations theory
• Suggest that the yield curve’s shape reflects the
market’s expectation of future interest rates.
• It assumes that financial instruments with different
durations are perfect substitutes.
• So, the yield on a long term security should be equal to
the expected geometric mean on a series of short term
instruments.
44
Pure expectations theory (cont.)
• So, the yield on a long term security should be equal to
the expected geometric mean on a series of short term
instruments.
• Geometric Mean Return (GM)
GM = [(1+R1)*(1+R2)*(1+R3)...(1+Rn)]1/n -1
45
Expectations theory
Explanation for the shape of yield curves:
– Inverse yield curve
Will result if the market expects future short-term rates
to be lower than current short-term rates
– Normal yield curve
Will result from expectations that future short-term
rates will be higher than current short-term rates
– Humped yield curve
Investors expect short-term rates to rise in the future
but to fall in subsequent periods
46
Expectations theory (cont.)
• Advantages:
– Explains why interest rate yields change over time.
– Explains why the interest rates on all securities tend to
move together rather than as separate sub-markets.
• Disadvantages:
– Cannot explain why yield curves usually slope upwards.
– It would suggest future short term rates are usually
expected to rise, but they are just as likely to fall.
47
Market segmentation theory
• The market is not one overall market but rather a
series of inter-connected markets.
Financial instruments of different terms are
not substitutable.
• So, the supply and demand in each of these markets
determines the interest rate in each.
• They are then connected with each other in that
investors in one market will change their preferences
with sufficient compensation.
48
Term Structure & Market Segmentation
Maturity
Y
i
e
l
d
49
Note: the various Xs reflect different supply and demand curves for
securities for various maturity ranges
Segmentation in practice
• It is true that certain investors, particularly
institutional investors, have specific maturity
preferences due to their business.
• Commercial banks prefer shorter to medium term
securities due to the nature of their liabilities.
• Life insurance companies prefer longer term
securities for the same reason.
50
Limits on segmentation
• It rejects “pure expectations theory” assumption that
all bonds are perfect substitutes for each other.
• It cannot explain why interest rate rise on the bonds
of one maturity affects bonds of another maturity.
• Nor can it explain why yield curves slope upwards
when short term interest rates are low or are
inverted when short term interest rates are high.
• It would also seem less likely to hold true in
deregulated financial markets.
51
Liquidity premium theory
• It considers that risk averse investors will prefer
short term securities to longer term securities.
• As a longer investment exposes the investor to:
more risk (particularly price risk),
more compensation
and hence higher rates on longer term investments are
expected.
• The level of compensation required may change
over time.
52
Liquidity premium theory (cont.)
• Advantages:
– Liquidity premium theory can easily be linked to
both the pure expectations theory and the market
segmentation theory.
– Help explain the shape of the yield curve for
majority periods of time (i.e. it can explain the
upward sloping or ‘normal’ yield curve).
• Disadvantages:
– only explains upward sloping curves;
– ignores risk preferences of suppliers of bonds.
53
Review of learning objectives
• Understand utility, risk and uncertainty
• Understand what determines interest rates
• Explain and construct the term structure of
interest rates
• Define and contrast the term structure of
interest rate related theories: unbiased/pure
expectations; market segmentation; liquidity
premium.