What Hedging Tools and What Flexibility is Right for Your Business?
By Jamie Jemmeson ACSI, MSTA at Infinity International In the previous blog we addressed the ‘What impact could hedging have on your business’, where we unpacked some of the difficulties of recognising your exposure and having the ability to accurately forecast during these COVID conditions. Given the current backdrop in the UK, now could be an opportune time to consider your framework for managing your foreign exchange risk and what level of flexibility you require. In short, given the current circumstances does your current approach offer you the flexibility you need? Before addressing the flexibility which various products can provide, it is important to take note why this could be significant in the second half of the year. Concerns of COVID second wave – data from the US is starting to prompt fear of a second wave which could weigh on sentiment and impact currency markets. Brexit “No Deal” re-emerges – the UK have declined on extending the transition deal beyond 2020. Recently PM Johnson stated that the UK would be prepared to accept an Australia-style Brexit trade deal, which is not considerably different to a 'no deal' Brexit. UK monetary policy - The possibility of negative interest rates is still not being ruled out by the Bank of England as a policy tool if the economy takes a turn for the worse. The above factors could have an impact on currency volatility as well as the supply and demand of goods. If this happens, as a business you