Currency Swaps and Interest Rate Swaps

Nakon dezintegracije monetarnog sustava uspostavljenog sporazumom iz Bretton Wooda i donošenja britanskih restriktivnih deviznih propisa razvili su se ugovori o valutnom swapu i ugovori o kamatnom swapu. Ugovori o valutnom swapu upravljeni su na zaštitu od rizika promjene tečaja strane valute, a ugovori o kamatnom swapu na zaštitu od rizika varijabilne kamatne stope. Zaštita se u prvim ugovorima postiže tako što strane ugovaraju sadašnju razmjenu dvije valute po tečaju u vrijeme ugovaranja i ponovnu razmjenu istih valuta u obrnutim smjerovima nakon isteka ugovorenog vremena i po ugovorenom tečaju. Drugi podrazumijevaju postojanje ili nastanak obveze plaćanja kamata ugovornih strana prema trećim osobama, i to obvezu jedne strane da plaća kamatu po fiksnoj stopi i druge po varijabilnoj stopi. U svrhu zaštite od rizika promjene varijabilne kamatne stope te strane ugovaraju isplatu razlike između fiksne stope i varijabilne stope u vrijeme plaćanja. Ugovori o valutnom i o kamatnom swapu ubrajaju se u financijske izvedenice, tj. u financijske instrumente koji su izvedeni iz drugih financijskih instrumenata, u ovom slučaju iz stranih valuta i kamata. Oni su prisutni u više hrvatskih propisa, a i u domaćoj poslovnoj praksi. U poslovnoj praksi redovito se ti ugovori ostvaruju sklapanjem najprije okvirnog ugovora, odnosno ISDA Master Agreementa, kojim se ugovaraju opći uvjeti pojedinih ugovora, koji se nakon toga sklapaju u obliku zaključnice, odnosno potvrde. Na koncu rada prikazuje se građanskopravna kvalifikacija ugovora o swapu u engleskom i njemačkom pravu te izvode zaključci o toj kvalifikaciji prema hrvatskom pravu. Posebno se razmatra pitanje valjanosti ugovora o swapu s obzirom na njihovu aleatornost.Following the disintegration of monetary system established by the Bretton Wood agreement and enactment of the British restrictive currency regulations the currency swaps and interest rate swaps have been developed. The currency swaps are aimed at risk protection from fluctuating exchange rates of foreign currency and the interest rate swaps at risk protection from floating interest rates. Protection is accomplished by the first type of contracts in such a manner as to contractual parties stipulate the current exchange of two currencies according to the exchange rates at the time of entering into a contract and repeated exchange of the same currencies in opposite directions after the expiration of a contract and according to a stipulated exchange rate. The latter imply existence or emerging of an obligation to pay interest rates by contractual parties to third persons. More specifically, one party is obliged to pay interest rates according to fixed rate and the other party according to floating rate. With the aim to protect themselves from risks of floating interest rates oscillations these parties stipulate a payment of difference between the fixed rate and floating rate at the time of payment. The currency swap and interest rate swap belong to financial derivatives, i.e. financial instruments which have been derived from other financial instruments, in this particular case from foreign currencies and interest rates. The swaps are present in numerous Croatian regulations as well as in domestic business practice. In business practice these contracts have regularly been stipulated, first of all, by stipulation of a framework contract, that is ISDA Master Agreement which contains provisions on general requirements applied in individual contracts subsequently stipulated in the form of sales agreement or endorsement. The last part of the article deals with a civil legal qualification of swaps in English and German law as well as conclusions on the qualification according to Croatian law. A special attention is given to the issue on swap validity in regards to its aletory nature