Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
ITEM 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
Market risk is the potential for economic losses from changes in market factors such as foreign currency exchange rates, credit, interest rates and equity prices. We believe that we have limited exposure to risks associated with changes in foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates and equity prices. We have no significant foreign operations. We do not hold or enter into derivatives or other financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes.
Interest rates
While operating net interest income has become a more meaningful component to our consolidated operating results, we do not consider our cash and cash equivalents or our investment securities to be subject to material interest rate risk due to their short duration. However, the Federal Open Market Committee ("FOMC") decreased the federal funds target rate in March 2020 to a range of 0%-0.25%, which has impacted the amount of net interest income we earn. While it is widely expected that the FOMC will increase interest rates in 2022 to slow the effects of economic inflation tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is uncertain when or how many times interest rates will be
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increased. The FOMC's decision-making policies for short-term interest rates will continue to impact the amount of net interest income we earn in the future.
As of December 31, 2021, we had no balances outstanding under our $100.0 million line of credit agreement. Refer to Note 11 — Debt to the Consolidated Financial Statements included herein for additional information. Should we require additional liquidity from our line of credit, our borrowings are expected to be at variable rates of interest and would expose us to interest rate risk. Although any short-term borrowings under our revolving credit facility would likely be insensitive to interest rate changes, interest expense on short-term borrowings will increase and decrease with changes in the underlying short-term interest rates. For example, assuming our credit agreement is drawn up to its maximum borrowing capacity of $100.0 million, based on the applicable LIBOR and margin in effect as of December 31, 2021, each quarter point of change in interest rates would result in a $0.3 million change in our annual interest expense.
We actively monitor our interest rate exposure and our objective is to reduce, where we deem appropriate to do so, fluctuations in earnings and cash flows associated with changes in interest rates. In order to accomplish this objective, we may enter into derivative financial instruments, such as forward contracts and interest rate hedge contracts only to the extent necessary to manage our exposure. We do not hold or enter into derivatives or other financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes.
Inflation risks
We do not believe that inflation has or will have a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Nonetheless, if our borrowing rates were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through rate increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, interest rate increases may adversely impact our customers’ spending levels or our customers’ ability to pay outstanding amounts owed to us. However, we believe this risk is largely offset by the higher interest rate yields on our cash and investment portfolios as well as anticipated increases in consumer spending caused by inflation that would result in increased interchange revenue. Further, because the majority of our investment portfolio is subject to longer maturity dates, we believe the risk of realized losses from selling fixed income securities at a discount to the market is immaterial.
Credit and liquidity risks
We are exposed to credit and liquidity risks associated with the financial institutions that hold our cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, available-for-sale investment securities, settlement assets due from retail distributors, third-party payment processors and other partners that collect funds and fees from our customers, and amounts due from our issuing banks for fees collected on our behalf.
We manage the credit and liquidity risks associated with our cash and cash equivalents, available-for-sale investment securities, loans and amounts due from issuing banks by maintaining an investment policy that restricts our correspondent banking relationships to approved, well capitalized institutions and restricts investments to highly liquid, low credit risk assets. Our policy has limits related to liquidity ratios, the concentration that we may have with a single institution or issuer and effective maturity dates as well as restrictions on the type of assets that we may invest in. The management Asset Liability Committee is responsible for monitoring compliance with our Capital Asset Liability Management policy and related limits on an ongoing basis, and reports regularly to the risk committee of our Board of Directors.
Our exposure to credit risk associated with settlement assets is mitigated due to the short time period, currently an average of two days that settlement assets are outstanding. We perform an initial credit review and assign a credit limit to each new retail distributor, third-party payment processors and other partners. We monitor each partner's settlement asset exposure and its compliance with its specified contractual settlement terms on a daily basis and assess their credit limit and financial condition on a periodic basis. Our management's Enterprise Risk Management Committee is responsible for monitoring partner exposure and assigning credit limits and reports regularly to the risk committee of our Board of Directors. We continue to monitor our exposure to credit risk with our retail distributors and other business partners in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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