Financial Risk: The Major Kinds That Companies Face (2024)

Risk is inherent in any business enterprise, and good risk management is an essential aspect of running a successful business. A company's management has varying levels of control in regard to risk. Some risks can be directly managed; other risks are largely beyond the control of company management. Sometimes, the best a company can do is try to anticipate possible risks, assess the potential impact on the company's business, and be prepared with a plan to react to adverse events.

There are many ways to categorize a company's financial risks. One approach for thisis provided by separating financial risk into four broad categories: market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, and operational risk.

Key Takeaways

There are four broad categories of financial risk that most companies must contend with.
Market risk is what happens when there is a substantial change in the particular marketplace in which a company competes.
Credit risk is when companies give their customers a line of credit; also, a company's risk of not having enough funds to pay its bills.
Liquidity risk refers to how easily a company can convert its assets into cash if it needs funds; it also refers to its daily cash flow.
Operational risks emerge as a result of a company's regular business activities and include fraud, lawsuits, and personnel issues.

1. Market Risk

Market riskinvolves the risk of changing conditions in the specific marketplace in which a company competes for business. One example of market risk is the increasing tendency of consumers to shop online. This aspect of market risk has presented significant challenges to traditional retail businesses.

Companies that have been able to make the necessary adaptations to serve an online shopping public have thrived and seen substantial revenue growth, while companies that have been slow to adapt or made bad choices in their reaction to the changing marketplace have fallen by the wayside. Another trend is the ESG trend. Companies are now called to move from polluting industries to cleaner ones, from seeking profits mostly to seeking profits while doing good in communities. Companies who lag behind will be poor in capital, short in talent, and low in branding.

This example also relates to another element of market risk—the risk of being outmaneuvered by competitors. In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, often with narrowing profit margins, the most financially successful companies are most successful in offering a unique value proposition that makes them stand out from the crowd and gives them a solid marketplace identity.

2. Credit Risk

Credit risk is the risk businesses incur by extending credit to customers. It can also refer to the company's own credit risk with suppliers. A business takes a financial risk when it provides financing of purchases to its customers, due to the possibility that a customer may default on payment.

A company must handle its own credit obligations by ensuring that it always has sufficient cash flow to pay its accounts payable bills in a timely fashion. Otherwise, suppliers may either stop extending credit to the company or even stop doing business with the company altogether.

While managing risk is an important part of effectively running a business, a company's management can only have so much control. In some cases, the best thing management can do is to anticipate potential risks and be prepared.

3. Liquidity Risk

Liquidity risk includes asset liquidity and operational funding liquidity risk. Asset liquidity refers to the relative ease with which a company can convert its assets into cash should there be a sudden, substantial need for additional cash flow. Operational funding liquidity is a reference to daily cash flow.

General or seasonal downturns in revenue can present a substantial risk if the company suddenly finds itself without enough cash on hand to pay the basic expenses necessary to continue functioning as a business. This is why cash flow management is critical to business success—and why analysts and investors look at metrics such as free cash flow when evaluating companies as an equity investment.

4. Operational Risk

Operational risks refer to the various risks that can arise from a company's ordinary business activities. The operational risk category includes lawsuits, fraud risk, personnel problems, and business model risk, which is the risk that a company's models of marketing and growth plans may prove to be inaccurate or inadequate.

FAQs

Financial Risk: The Major Kinds That Companies Face? ›

There are 5 main types of financial risk: market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, legal risk, and operational risk.

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What are the major kinds of financial risk that companies face investopedia? ›

There are many ways to categorize a company's financial risks. One approach for this is provided by separating financial risk into four broad categories: market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, and operational risk.

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What are the 5 types of financial risk? ›

Based on this, financial risk can be classified into various types such as Market Risk, Credit Risk, Liquidity Risk, Operational Risk, and Legal Risk.

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What is financial risk faced by business? ›

Financial risk is the possibility of losing money on an investment or business venture. Some more common and distinct financial risks include credit risk, liquidity risk, and operational risk. Financial risk is a type of danger that can result in the loss of capital to interested parties.

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What types of risks do financial institutions face? ›

The OCC has defined nine categories of risk for bank supervision purposes. These risks are: Credit, Interest Rate, Liquidity, Price, Foreign Exchange, Transaction, Compliance, Strategic and Reputation. These categories are not mutually exclusive; any product or service may expose the bank to multiple risks.

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What are the major risk faced by business firms? ›

The four main types of risk that businesses encounter are strategic, compliance (regulatory), operational, and reputational risk. These risks can be caused by factors that are both external and internal to the company.

How do you identify financial risks? ›

To identify financial risk, start by carefully reviewing your corporate balance sheet or statement of financial position. You will want to understand what your main sources of revenue are and how customer credit terms affect this revenue.

What is financial risk and business risk? ›

Financial risk relates to how a company uses its financial leverage and manages its debt load. Business risk relates to whether a company can make enough in sales and revenue to cover its expenses and turn a profit. With financial risk, there is a concern that a company may default on its debt payments.

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What is an example of a financial risk that an entrepreneur might face? ›

One of the most common financial risks entrepreneurs face is not having the funds they need to start or keep their business going. Entrepreneurs often invest their own money as well as seek funding from investors or borrow money to launch their business.