Hedge Accounting

Hedge accounting minimizes the impact of market price changes on the financial position. Thanks to a special balance sheet presentation, fluctuations in value are not recorded immediately, but in line with the hedged underlying transaction.
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Hedge Accounting Challenges

Hedge accounting places high demands on accounting and treasury: The former must precisely document hedging relationships and regularly valuate financial instruments. The latter is responsible for carrying out hedging transactions, for example through derivatives.

Strategy

Hedge Accounting requires a risk management strategy in which relevant risks are identified and countermeasures are defined. The hedged risks must meet defined criteria.

Types of Hedging Realtionships

With fair value hedge, cash flow hedge and hedge of a net investment in aforeign operation, there are three types available, which differ how value developments of hedging and hedged transactions are recognized in the income statement.

Documentation

Hedge Accounting requires complete documentation from the overall risk management strategy to the individual hedging relationship and therefore places high demands on accounting and treasury.

Our support

We support your Hedge Accounting processes with specialist expertise and many years of experience.

Development of formal risk strategies in accordance with IFRS 9
Identifying efficient ways to reduce accounting mismatches
Documentation of risk management and hedge accounting processes
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This is how we support Hedge Accounting for you

Development of Risk Strategies

We prepare documentation of the risk management strategy as the foundation for the overall process, including templates, accounting procedures, valuation of underlying and hedging transactions, and notes for each hedging relationship.

A standardized hedge framework ensures that every measure meets the effectiveness criteria and that unnecessary volatility in the profit and loss statement is avoided.

Risk Reduction

For different types of risks, there can be many different ways to reduce them. Together with you, we will find an efficient way to reduce your balance sheet risk.

Risk Management Documentation

We prepare the documentation of the risk management strategy as the basis for the overall process, including templates, booking processes, evaluation of hedged and hedging transactions and notes disclolures for each hedging relationship.

In this way, we create a reliable hedge accounting process.

FAQ

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

What is Hedge Accounting?

Hedge accounting is the synchronization of fluctuations between a hedged instrument and a hedging instrument within a hedging relationship. This procedure’s aim is the symmetrical presentation of changes in fair value or cash flows in profit or loss by simultaneously offsetting opposing effects.

Without this special accouting procedure, economically hedged risks would lead to unintended fluctuations in earnings in financial reporting.

What types of hedge accounting are differentiated under IFRS 9?

IFRS distinguishes between hedging changes in fair values and changes in future cash flows. While the first model focuses on recognized items or fixed obligations, the other model additionally considers fluctuations in expected transactions. Furthermore, the second figure is used to hedge net investments in foreign operations.
These distinctions ensure that the economic hedging strategy is consistent with the financial statement presentation.

What are the documentation requirements under IFRS 9?

To apply hedge accounting, a formal documentation must define the entity’s risk management strategy, a precise description of the type of risks to be mitigated, the specific hedging and hedged instruments as well as the respective method for measuring effectiveness. These formal records serve as proof that the balance sheet figure corresponds to the actual economic intention.

What is a hedged and a hedging instrument?

A hedged item may be a recognized asset, a recognized liability, a unrecognized firm commitment, or a highly probable forecast transaction exposing the entity to a specific market risk. The hedging instrument serves as the financial counterpart designated to offset potential changes in the fair value or cash flows of the hedged item. Through the designation of both components, volatility in reported earnings is minimized and the overall economic risk profile is faithfully represented.