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by vasco
4 days ago
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If you borrow a million dollars and buy gold both of those will have to be communicated to shareholders and indeed show up in the balance sheet. It doesn't matter if you say the lines add up to zero, that's still in the balance sheet shown for everyone to see. |
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If you buy a futures contract with 1m of underlying value - it is NOT on the balance sheet. The balance sheet is unchanged. Economically it is exactly the same thing. It is exactly like you borrowed a million and bought gold with it but the loan and asset are invisible. Shocking, isn't it?
The structured finance dept of an investment bank uses exactly this (among other techniques) for off-balance sheet financing. There are rules they have to follow designed to prevent or minimise off balance sheet financing. You think the regulators have the investment bankers in a bind where they can do nothing and can't charge big fees resulting in the closure of all the structured finance departments? Well you know that could have happened without my knowledge, but I'd be quite surprised. You might know better? Do you want to bet?