SELECTIVE HEDGING OF BANK ASSETS WITH TREASURY BILL FUTURES CONTRACTS

The recent volatility of interest rates, the associated profit pressures imposed on banks, and the surge in the development of new contracts have stimulated a desire to understand and apply financial futures hedging to banking operations. This paper models interest rate futures contracts in a theory of bank behavior to illustrate the hedging of bank loans as well as government securities. The model predicts the hedge will be greater (1) the greater the expected rise in interest rates and (2) the greater the effect of disintermediation on bank deposits. A simulation of the financial futures trading strategy is reported for banks of various asset sizes using data from the Eleventh Federal Reserve District. Depending on bank risk aversion and interest rate expectations, hedging the bank's total interest rate exposure with T-bill futures reduces the variability of unhedged profits by 80 percent.