Interest rates—[the prices charged for obtaining credit]—are one of the most important
variables that the managers of financial firms must work with every day.
firms
Adverse movements
in market interest rates can erode a financial institution’s profitability and wipe out
all, or a substantial portion of, the stockholders’ investment in the institution.
Banks’
sensitivity to interest rate movements is especially intense because of the mismatch
between their volatile short-term liabilities (principally deposits) and their longer-term
assets (especially loans and securities).
However, banks are not the only financial institutions
carrying heavy interest-rate sensitivity;
so do insurance companies, security dealers
and most other financial-service providers, [who face the risk of significant losses should
changing market interest rates drive up their borrowing costs and lower the value and net
returns on their assets.