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Determinants of Swap Spreads in a Developing Financial Market: Evidence from Finland
Author(s) -
Suhonen Antti
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
european financial management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.311
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-036X
pISSN - 1354-7798
DOI - 10.1111/1468-036x.00072
Subject(s) - swap (finance) , volatility (finance) , interest rate swap , monetary economics , economics , currency , business , financial economics , yield curve , interest rate , econometrics , finance
This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of swap spreads in Finland using four years of data. Spreads exhibit a significant negative relationship with the amount of fixed rate deposits with banks, which reflects the importance of banks in the Finnish capital markets. Spreads are positively linked to business cycle and market risk factors such as the slope of the yield curve and the volatility of interest rates. The influence of hedging costs has become increasingly important over time, especially in longer dated swaps. A relationship is also observed between swap spreads and the external value of the currency.