The quanto conundrum

Many corporates have been able to make significant cost savings through using quanto swaps over the past few years. But Pablo Triana Portela argues that new accounting rules mean these structures could fade from the corporate lexicon, despite their economic benefit

No-one can deny that the new accounting standards for derivatives recently introduced in Europe and already some four years old in the US have been controversial. The core of the debate lies in the fact that the new rules – Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 133 for US-listed companies and International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 for European-listed firms – can potentially make it more difficult for companies to use derivatives for risk management purposes. Unless the derivative