Legal Nature and Role of Swap Arrangements and Options as Financial Instruments

Financial derivatives are, in the last forty years, the most important financial innovation that influence the creation of new, very deep and broad financial markets. Their number is constantly increasing. There is a creation of new variants of existing derivative contracts and therefore the subjects have the opportunity to differently manage risk. Although their controversial legal nature, generally accepted view is that they were contracts. Swap is the youngest of all financial derivatives and represents a financial innovation of a later date. Market swaps recorded one of the fastest growth rate among global financial markets. Swap represents a private agreement between the two parties regarding exchange cash flow of the fixed time in the future in accordance with a predetermined pattern. The most common users of swaps are non-financial corporations, which want to receive variable, and to pay a fixed interest rate in order to limit interest expenses on bank loans or bond issues with variable interest rate, as well as banks, the governments of some supranational institutions such as the World Bank. In economic theory emphasized is the view that the comparative advantage is the basis for swaps functioning. Options are contracts in which one party has the exclusive right, while the other contracting party assumes only the obligation to buy or sell assets to which the option is created. In the nationa legislation the option contract is transferable standardized contract binding the buyer has the right to, including the payment obligation of the agreed premium on the day or days of maturity specified in the contract.