2) Currency exchange risks occur as the exchange rates fluctuate every second throughout the day. MNCs often deal with large transactions in which they may need to pay or receive large sums of money within certain period of time, exchange rate fluctuations are crucial as they may affect the company’s earning greatly(Ayse, 2013).
a) Transaction Risks
This is the most common type of risks faced by the MNCs. MNCs deals with account receivables, account payables and dividends. There will be a time frame between the transaction date and the actual receive or pay out date. In between these dates there can be fluctuations in exchange rates which will contribute to company’s profit or loss (studymode, 2002). For example, if a Singapore company strikes a deal with an American company today which results in one million United States dollars to be received in a month’s time. Come to the actual paying date the following can occur:
Transaction Date USD/SGD Payment Date USD/SGD
1st Jan 2013 1.2500 Scenario One : 1st Feb 2013 1.2600 (USD strengthens against SGD) Scenario Two : 1st Feb 2013 1.2400 (USD weakens against SGD)
Scenario One: With the strengthening of USD by 100 points against SIN, the company profits:
SGD 1,000,000 x 0.01 = SGD 10,000
Scenario Two: With the weakening of USD by 100 points against SIN, the company loses:
SGD 1,000,000 x 0.01 = SGD 10,000
b) Translation Risks
This risk is basically involves exchange rate risks with balance sheets relating to subsidiary companies in foreign countries. This will in turn affect the “consolidation of a