Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• ASSET SENSITIVE
  
  Describes an entity's position when an increase in interest rates will help the entity and a decrease in interest rates will hurt the entity. An entity is asset sensitive when the impact of the change in its assets is larger than the impact of the change in its liabilities after a change in prevailing interest rates. This occurs when either the timing or the amount of the rate changes for liabilities causes interest expense to change by more than the change in interest income. The impact of a change in prevailing interest rates may be measured in terms of the change in the value of assets and liabilities. In that case, an asset-sensitive entity's economic value of equity increases when prevailing rates rise or declines when prevailing rates fall. Alternatively, the impact of a change in prevailing rates may be measured in terms of the change in the interest income and expense for assets and liabilities. In that case, an asset-sensitive entity's earnings or net income increases when prevailing rates rise and declines when prevailing rates fall.
  
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