Finance – Types
There is currently a move towards converging and consolidating Finance provisions into shared services within an organization. Rather than an organization having a number of separate Finance departments performing the same tasks from different locations a more centralized version can be created.
Finance of states
Country, state, county, city or municipality finance is called public finance. It is concerned with:
- Identification of required expenditure of a public sector entity
- Source(s) of that entity's revenue
- The budgeting process
- Debt issuance (municipal bonds) for public works projects
Questions in personal finance revolve around:
- How much money will be needed by an individual (or by a family) at various points in the future?
- Where will this money come from (e.g. savings or borrowing)?
- How can people protect themselves against unforeseen events in their lives, and risk in financial markets?
- How can family assets be best transferred across generations (bequests and inheritance)?
- How do taxes (tax subsidies or penalties) affect personal financial decisions?
Personal financial decisions may involve paying for education, financing durable goods such as real estate and cars, buying insurance, e.g. health and property insurance, investing and saving for retirement. Personal financial decisions may also involve paying for a loan.
In the case of a company, managerial finance or corporate finance is the task of providing the funds for the corporations' activities. It generally involves balancing risk and profitability. Long term funds would be provided by ownership equity and long-term credit, often in the form of bonds. These decisions lead to the company's capital structure. Short term funding or working capital is mostly provided by banks extending a line of credit.
On the bond market, borrowers package their debt in the form of bonds. The borrower receives the money it borrows by selling the bond, which includes a promise to repay the value of the bond with interest. The purchaser of a bond can resell the bond, so the actual recipient of interest payments can change over time. Bonds allow lenders to recoup the value of their loan by simply selling the bond.
Another business decision concerning finance is investment, or fund management. An investment is an acquisition of an asset in the hopes that it will maintain or increase its value. In investment management - in choosing a portfolio - one has to decide what, how much and when to invest. In doing so, one needs to:
– Identify relevant objectives and constraints: institution or individual - goals - time horizon - risk aversion - tax considerations
– Identify the appropriate strategy: active vs passive - hedging strategy
– Measure the portfolio performance
Financial management is duplicate with the financial function of the Accounting profession. However, Financial Accounting is more concerned with the reporting of historical financial information, while the financial decision is directed toward the future of the firm.