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Concept
Swap (finance)
Summary
In finance, a swap is an agreement between two counterparties to exchange financial instruments, cashflows, or payments for a certain time. The instruments can be almost anything but most swaps involve cash based on a notional principal amount.
The general swap can also be seen as a series of forward contracts through which two parties exchange financial instruments, resulting in a common series of exchange dates and two streams of instruments, the legs of the swap. The legs can be almost anything but usually one leg involves cash flows based on a notional principal amount that both parties agree to. This principal usually does not change hands during or at the end of the swap;
this is contrary to a future, a forward or an option.
In practice one leg is generally fixed while the other is variable, that is determined by an uncertain variable such as a benchmark interest rate, a foreign exchange rate, an index price, or a commodity price.
Swaps are primarily over-the-counter contracts between companies or financial institutions. Retail investors do not generally engage in swaps.
A mortgage holder is paying a floating interest rate on their mortgage but expects this rate to go up in the future. Another mortgage holder is paying a fixed rate but expects rates to fall in the future. They enter a fixed-for-floating swap agreement. Both mortgage holders agree on a notional principal amount and maturity date and agree to take on each other's payment obligations. The first mortgage holder from now on is paying a fixed rate to the second mortgage holder while receiving a floating rate. By using a swap, both parties effectively changed their mortgage terms to their preferred interest mode while neither party had to renegotiate terms with their mortgage lenders.
Considering the next payment only, both parties might as well have entered a fixed-for-floating forward contract. For the payment after that another forward contract whose terms are the same, i.e. same notional amount and fixed-for-floating, and so on.
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