1、对外经济贸易大学 2002 年攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试 金融学院 金融专业英语 试题 （英译中，五段，每段 20 分，共 100 分） 1.What is a bank? As important as banks are to the economy as a whole and to local communities, there is much confusion about exactly what a bank is. Certainly banks can be identified by the functions (services or roles) they perfo
2、rm in the economy. The problem is that not only are the functions of banks changing, but the functions of their principal competitors are changing as well. Indeed, many financial institutions including leading security dealers, brokerage firms, mutual funds, and insurance companies arc trying to be
3、as similar as possible to banks in the services they offer. Bankers, in turn, are challenging these nonblank competitors by lobbying for expanded authority to offer real estate and full-service security brokerage, insurance coverage, investments in mutual funds, and many other new services. The resu
4、lt of many legal and regulatory changes is a state of confusion in the publics mind today over what is or is not a bank. The safest approach is probably to view these institutions in terms of what types of services the offer the public. Banks are those financial institutions that offer the widest ra
5、nge of financial services especially credit, savings, and payment services and perform the widest range of financial functions of any business form in the economy. This multiplicity of bank services and functions has led to banks being labeled“financial department store”. 2. The Adoption of Indirect
6、 Instruments of Monetary Policy In the late 1970s, industrial countries began phasing out the direct instruments some of them used to operate monetary policy-including credits controls, interest rate ceilings, and sometimes directed credits-and began moving toward full reliance on indirect instrumen
7、ts, such as open market operations, rediscount facilities, and reserve requirement. In more recent years, there has been also an increasing tendency for the developing countries and the economies in transition to adopt such instruments. The greater use of indirect monetary instruments can be seen as
8、 the counterpart in the monetary area to the widespread movement toward enhancing the role of price signals in the economy more generally. Both have the same objective of improving market efficiency. Perhaps even more critically, moves to indirect instruments are taking place in an increasingly more
9、 open economic environment, with widespread adoption of current account convertibility. In such an environment, direct instruments have become increasingly ineffective, leading to inefficiencies and disintermediation. In the absence of indirect instruments of monetary policy, the authorities would,
10、therefore, be unable to counter any problems of excess liquidity, which would impede their efforts to stabilize the economy. 3. Why banks are so heavily regulated? Why are banks so closely regulated? There are number of reasons for this heavy burden of government supervision, some of them centuries
11、old. First, banks are among the leasing repositories of the publics savings especially the saving of individuals and families. While most of the publics saving are placed in relatively short-term, highly liquid deposits, banks also hold large amounts of long-term savings in individual retirement acc
12、ounts (IRAs). The loss of these funds due to bank failure or bank crime would be catastrophic to many individuals and families. But, many savers lack the financial expertise and depth of information needed to correctly evaluate the riskiness of a bank. Therefore, regulatory agencies are charged with
13、 the responsibility of gathering and evaluating the information needed to assess the true financial condition of banks in order to protect the public against loss. Banks are also closely watched because of their power to create money in the form of readily spendable deposits by making loans and inve
14、stments. Changes in the volume of money created by banks appear to be closely correlated with economic conditions, especially the growth of jobs and the presence or absence of inflation. Banks are also regulated because they provide individuals and businesses with loans that support consumption and
15、investment spending. Regulatory authorities argue that the public has a keen interest in an adequate supply of loans flowing from the banking system. Moreover, where discrimination in the granting of credit is present, those individuals who are discriminated against face a significant obstacle to th
16、eir personal well-being and an improved standard of living. This is especially true if access to credit is denied because of age, sex, race, national origin, or similar factors. Finally, banks have a long history of involvement with government federal, state, and local. Early in the history of the i
17、ndustry governments relied upon cheap bank credit and the taxation of banks to finance armies and to supply the funds they were unwilling to raise through direct taxation of their citizens. More recently, governments have relied upon banks to assist in conducting economic policy, in collecting taxes
18、, and in dispensing government payments. 4. Financial Futures A financial futures contract is an agreement between buyer and a seller reached today that calls for the delivery of particular security in exchange for cash at some future date . The market value of a futures contract changes daily as th
19、e market price of the security to be exchanged moves over time. As a result, futures contracts are “marked to marker” each day to reflect the current value of the assets subject to eventual delivery under each futures contract, and a cash payment may have to be made (usually to a broker) by one or t
20、he other party to the contract in order to protect against possible loss. The financial futures markets are designed to shift the risk of interest rate fluctuations from risk-averse investors, such as commercial banks, to speculators willing to accept and possibly profit from such risks. Futures con
21、tracts are traded on organized exchanges (such as the Chicago Board of Trade or the London Futures Exchange), where floor brokers execute orders received from the public to buy or sell these contracts at the best prices available. Then a bank contacts an exchange broker and offers to sell futures co
22、ntracts (I, e., the bank wishers to “go short” in futures), this means it is promising to deliver securities of a certain kind and quality to the buyer of those contracts on a stipulated date at a predetermined price. Conversely, a bank may enter the futures market as buyer of futures contracts (i.e
23、., the bank chooses to “go long” in futures), agreeing to accept delivery of the particular securities named in each contract and to pay cash to the exchange clearinghouse the day the contracts mature, based on their price at that time. 5. Offshore Financial Center (OFC) An offshore financial center
24、 (OFC) may be defined as jurisdiction in which transactions with non-residents far outweigh transactions related to the domestic economy. They have developed by offering an attractive tax, legal and/or regulatory environment. In particular, the absence of inheritance, wealth, withholding or capital
25、gains taxes can make the environment in OFCs very favorable to, for example, internationally mobile individuals. Zero or low direct taxes can make it attractive for companies conducting business with non-residents to incorporate in OFCs. Ina similar vein, the corporate legal environment may facilita
26、te speedy adoption of new financial products or allow greater flexibility in restructuring and refinancing options. Political and economic stability and the presence of high quality professional (eg legal and accounting) and supporting services are also important in attracting business from other ma
27、jor financial centers. A number of important OFCs are small island states, with few domestically owned financial institutions, a large number of “brass-plate” institutions and little non-financial economic activity. The Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands are obvious examples. But the dist
28、inction between OFCs and other financial centers is not clear-out. Some economies. Such as Hong Kong and Singapore have a significant volume of entrepot business alongside domestically orientated financial intermediation. The term “OTC” is , furthermore, sometimes also used in connection with specia
29、l tax and/or regulation zones that are established within the borders of a country to attract non-resident business (for example Labuan in Malaysia, or the International Financial Services Center in Dublin). 1 银行是什么？ 无论是对于整个经济还是对于某一地区的经济而言，银行都是很重要的，同样地，人们对银行的准确含义也充满了困惑。当然，可以通过银行在经济中的职能（服务或作用）来给银行下定义
30、。问题在于，不仅仅银行的职能在变化，其主要竞争对手的职能也在变化。事实上，从提供的服务上来看，许多金融机构（包括主要的证券承销商、经纪公司、共同基金和保险公司）都类似于银行。相反，银行家们则通过游说方式争取权力以便能够开展房地产和全面证券经纪业务、保险理赔业务、共同基金投资和其他许多新的服务，藉此向非银行竞争对手挑战。 许多法规发生变化的结果是，导致了对于什么是银行什么不是银行这一问题，目前公众心里一片茫然。根据这些机构对公众提供服务的种类来评价，或许是最保险的做法。银行是提供最广泛金融服务（尤其是信贷、储蓄和支付业务）的金融机构，并执行经济中所有商业形式的最广泛的金融职能。这种服务和职能的多
31、样性，使银行被称为“金融百货公司”。 2.货币政策间接工具的运用 在 20 世纪 70 年代末期，有些工业化国家开始逐步摒弃一些曾经用来实施货币政策的直接工具，包括信贷控制，利率上限，有时是直接存款，并开始完全采用间接工具，比如，公开市场操作、再贴现和准备金要求。在最近几年，发展中国家和过渡经济体也开始采用这些间接工具，而且呈上升趋势。 间接货币政策在货币领域里发挥着日益重要的作用，就如同经济中价格信号的功能日益广泛一样。二者有着共同的目标：提高市场效率。或许更为重要的是，转向间接工具的行为发生在一个日益开放的经济环境里，“经常性项目可兑换”被广泛采用。在这样一种环境下，直接工具的效果越来越差
32、，最终会导致完全无效和非居间化投资。如果没有货币政策的间接工具，管理当局就没有办法解决任何过剩流动性带来的问题，而过剩的流动性会妨碍他们稳定经济的努力。 3.为什么要对银行进行严格管制？ 为什么要对银行进行严格管制？有很多理由可以解释政府监管这一重负，这已经有几个世纪的历史了。 首先，银行是公众储蓄（尤其是个人和家庭储蓄）的出租仓库。大多数公众储蓄都属于短期存放，属于高流动性的存款，而银行也掌握了大量来自个人退休账户的长期存款。银行破产和犯罪行为会导致银行存款的损失，这对于许多个人和家庭来说，将是巨大的灾难。但是，许多存款人缺乏正确评价银行风险的金融知识和足够的信息。因此，监管机构有义务收集和
33、评价那些用来评估银行真实财务状况的信息，以保护公众免受损失。 对银行密切监管的另一个重要原因是，银行有创造货币的权力，而这些货币通过贷款和投资就可以直接放出。看上去，银行所创造的货币量的变化与经济状况密切相关，尤其是与就业的增长和通货膨胀的存在与否有关。 要对银行进行管制还因为它们对个人和企业贷款以支持消费和投资。监管当局声称，公众对银行系统能够提供足够的贷款供给非常感兴趣。尤其是，当信贷条件存在歧视的时候，那些被歧视人的个人福利和已经得到改善的生活水平将会遇到严重的影响。如果信贷的权利因为年龄、性别、种族、民族等类似原因而被拒绝的话，这种影响尤其明显。 最后，银行与政府（联邦政府，州政府和地
34、方政府）的纠缠由来已久。在工业化的早期，政府就依靠银行成本低廉的信贷和银行的税收为军队筹措资金，并向他们不愿意通过公民的直接税收筹资的基金提供支持。更近一些时候，政府依靠银行帮助实施其经济政策，征缴税收，发放政府支付款。 4. 金融期货 金融期货合约指买卖者双方达成的协议，协议规定了在未来的某个日期以现金交换某一特定的证券。由于被交易的证券的市场价格不断地随着时间变化，期货合约的市场价值也每天都发生变化。因此，期货合约每天都进行逐日结算，以便可以反映该笔合约最终将要交割的资产的当前价值。为了避免可能的损失，合约的一方或者另一方必须采用现金结算（通常是支付给经纪人）的方式。 金融期货市场的目的在
35、于，把利率波动风险从风险规避型的投资者（如商业银行）转移给那些为了得到利润而愿意承担风险的投机者。期货合约交易是在有组织的交易所（如芝加哥期货交易所或伦敦期货交易所）内进行的。在那里，场内经纪人执行由公众发出的以可能的最好价格买入或者卖出合约的指令。一家银行与一个经纪人取得联系，发出出售合约（例如，银行希望可以做空某期货），这意味着它承诺在一个事先确定的价位上、在规定的日期把确定品种和数量的证券出售给合约购买者。相反，一家银行也可以以期货合约购买者的身份进入期货市场（例如，银行希望能够持有某种期货的多头），承诺在合约到期的时候，按照合约规定的价格买入合约中所规定的证券，并将现金支付给交易清算所
36、。 5离岸金融中心（OFC ） 当某一市场中由非本国居民所进行的金融交易远超过与本国经济相关的交易时，这个市场就可以称为离岸金融中心。它们通过提供优惠的税收政策、法律和/ 或规范的交易环境得到了很大的发展。特别地，由于 OFC 不对遗产、财富、预提款和资本利得征税， OFC 对那些诸如国际流动人口等一类人来说非常具有吸引力。零税收或者很低的直接税收能够吸引那些与非本国居民从事商业往来的公司进驻 OFC。同理，这样的公司法律环境能够催生新的金融产品，并允许公司在重组和募资的选择上拥有更大的弹性。稳定的政治与经济环境、高质量的专业人才（如法律和会计人才）以及相关的配套服务对于 OFC 能够从其他主
37、要金融中心吸引企业也是很重要的。 许多重要的 OFC 都是一些岛国，当地的金融机构很少，而“黄铜板”机构很多，非金融经济活动却很少。开曼群岛和英属维京群岛就是很典型的例子。但是， OFC 和其他金融中心的区别并不是很明确。诸如香港和新加坡除了作为世界上很繁荣的贸易中心的同时，它们也拥有大量的本土金融业务。此外，OFC 作为一个专有名词，有时也与这样的地区相联系的，它们往往是建立在一国之内，却执行特定的规章制度和/ 或者税收政策，其设立的目的在于吸引非本土的企业（例如，马来西亚的纳闽岛，或者是都柏林的国际金融服务中心）。 圣才考研网 http:/开设了各门专业课的论坛及专栏，并提供各专业试题库、笔记、讲义及大量专业课复习资料，特别提供北大、人大等著名高校的最新考研真题及其参考答案。还可代购考研图书！
