Elements of Foreign Exchange: A Foreign Exchange PrimerEscher, Franklin
General
Elements of Foreign Exchange: A Foreign Exchange Primer
Escher, Franklin
Foreign exchange
The $241,500 received from the sale of the draft, the American banker
uses to buy the bonds. Ninety days later the draft will come due in
London, and have to be covered (or renewed) from this side, but in the
meantime, a profitable chance to sell the bonds may present itself. If
not, the draft can be "renewed" at the end of the ninety days, and
again and again if necessary, until the bankers are willing to close
out the bonds.
This operation of "renewing" long drafts drawn for the purpose of
carrying securities is one of the most interesting phases of foreign
exchange business in connection with international security dealings.
The draft has been drawn, say, for £50,000. The end of the ninety-day
period comes, the draft is due, is presented, and has to be paid. But
the bankers do not choose to sell out the bonds and close the deal.
They arrange instead to renew the maturing draft. This they do by
paying the original ninety-day draft out of the proceeds of a new
ninety-day draft.
The original draft for £50,000 comes due let us say on October 19, so
that about October 10th the New York banker will be under the necessity
of sending over to London a demand draft for £50,000. The rate
realizable for ninety-day drafts being always considerably lower than
the price of demand drafts, it follows that if the banker proposes to
buy £50,000 of demand out of the proceeds of a fresh ninety-day bill he
will have to draw his fresh bill for more than £50,000. If the demand
rate happened to be 4.86, the £50,000 he needs would cost him $243,000.
In order to raise $243,000 by selling a ninety-days' sight draft (say
at 4.83) he would have to make the new draft for £50,310. The extra
£310 would constitute the interest. Each time he renewed the draft he
would have to draw for more and more.
Requiring the tying up of no actual capital, this form of financing
"floating investments" has become exceedingly popular and is carried on
on a large scale. Where the relationships between the foreign and the
American houses are close, there is almost no limit to the number of
times an original bill may be renewed. As for the constantly increasing
amount of the drafts which have to be drawn, that is taken care of by
the interest on the investment carried.
Not all the floating investment in American securities is carried in
this way, but in whatever form the financing is done it is bound to
involve foreign exchange operations and to necessitate the drawing of
drafts by banking houses in this country on their correspondents
abroad. Quiet conditions may result in long periods when investments of
this kind are left undisturbed, but even then, the constant remitting
and renewing of drafts originates a good deal of exchange market
activity. And with considerable frequency occur periods when the
floating investment is strongly affected by immediate conditions, and
when purchases, sales, and transfers of securities stir the exchange
market to a high pitch of excitement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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