Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

We are exposed to the impact of foreign exchange-related variability and earnings volatility on our foreign investments and interest rate changes. See our risk factors in Part 1, Item 1A. Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. See also Note 9 in the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 1 for more information about our foreign operations and derivative financial instruments.

We monitor our market risk exposures using a sensitivity analysis. Our sensitivity analysis estimates the exposure to market risk sensitive instruments assuming a hypothetical 10% adverse change in foreign currency exchange rates or interest rates at September 30, 2024. The results of the sensitivity analysis are summarized in the following sections. The sensitivity analysis is of limited predictive value. As a result, revenues and expenses, as well as our ultimate realized gains or losses with respect to foreign currency exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations will depend on the exposures that arise during a future period, hedging strategies at the time and the prevailing foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates.

Foreign Currency Risk

We are exposed to foreign currency exchange variability related to investments in and earnings from our foreign investments. Foreign currency market risk is the possibility that our results of operations or financial position could be better or worse than planned because of changes in foreign currency exchange rates. We primarily hedge our foreign currency risk by borrowing in the currencies in which we invest thereby providing a natural hedge. Additionally, we hedge our foreign currency risk by entering into derivative financial instruments, such as foreign currency contracts, that we designate as net investment hedges, as these amounts offset the translation adjustments on the underlying net assets of our foreign investments. At September 30, 2024, after consideration of our ability to borrow in the foreign currencies in which we invest and also derivative and nonderivative financial instruments as discussed in Note 9 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, we had minimal net equity denominated in a currency other than the U.S. dollar.

Index

For the nine months ended September 30, 2024, $434 million or 7.2% of our total consolidated revenue was denominated in foreign currencies. We enter into foreign currency contracts that we do not designate, such as forwards, to reduce the impact from fluctuations in foreign currency associated with the translation of the future earnings of our international subsidiaries. At September 30, 2024, we had foreign currency contracts denominated principally in British pound sterling, Canadian dollar, euro and Japanese yen, with an aggregate notional amount of $1.6 billion. As we do not designate these foreign currency contracts as hedges, the gain or loss on settlement is included in our earnings and offsets the lower or higher translation of earnings from our investments denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Although the impact to net earnings is mitigated through higher translated U.S. dollar earnings from these currencies, a weakening of the U.S. dollar against these currencies by 10% could result in a $163 million cash payment on settlement of these contracts.

Interest Rate Risk

We are also exposed to the impact of interest rate changes on future earnings and cash flows. To mitigate that risk, we generally borrow with fixed rate debt and we may use derivative instruments to fix the interest rate on our variable rate debt. At September 30, 2024, $31.2 billion of our debt bore interest at fixed rates and therefore the fair value of these instruments was affected by changes in market interest rates. At September 30, 2024, $1.7 billion of our debt bore interest at variable rates. The following table summarizes the future repayment of debt and scheduled principal payments at September 30, 2024 (dollars in millions):

(1)

The weighted average interest rates represent the effective interest rates (including amortization of debt issuance costs and noncash premiums and discounts) for the debt outstanding and include the impact of designated interest rate swaps, which effectively fix the interest rate on certain variable rate debt.

At September 30, 2024, the weighted average effective interest rate on our variable rate debt was 2.7% which was calculated using an average balance on our credit facilities throughout the year and our other variable rate debt balances at September 30, 2024. Changes in interest rates can cause interest expense to fluctuate on our variable rate debt. On the basis of our sensitivity analysis, a 10% increase in interest rates on our average outstanding variable rate debt balances would result in additional annual interest expense of $4 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, which equates to a change in interest rates of 27 basis points on our average outstanding variable rate debt balances and one basis point on our average total debt portfolio balances.