A Survey on Risk Management and Usage of Derivatives by Non-Financial Italian Firms

Abstract

This paper presents a survey on the risk management function and the usage of hedging instruments by Italian non-financial firms. The objective is to measure how firms manage the following risks: Exchange-foreign, Interest rate, Energetic, Commodity, Equity, Counter-party, Operational, Country. The survey was conducted both for listed and non-listed firms, suggest that Italian firms are less likely to use derivatives than US firms. The percentage of firms using derivatives or insurance instruments has not changed noticeably in the last 10 years. The use of derivatives is more significant among large firms in every risk typology. The reasons to explain the limited practice in derivative markets are the insufficient exposure to risk area to warrant management, the exposure more effectively managed by other means and the difficulties in monitoring/measuring contract effectiveness.