FINANCIAL SWAP

PRESENTATION BY ASHISH SIDDIQUI

INTRODUCTION TO SWAP
A swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange sequences of cash flows for a set period of time. Usually, at the time the contract is initiated, at least one of these series of cash flows is determined by a random or uncertain variable, such as an interest rate, foreign exchange rate, equity price or commodity price. Conceptually, one may view a swap as either a portfolio of forward contracts, or as a long position in one bond coupled with a short position in another bond. The two most common and most basic types of swaps: the plain vanilla interest rate and currency swaps.

SWAP MARKET
Unlike most standardized options and futures contracts, swaps are not exchange-traded instruments. Instead, swaps are customized contracts that are traded in the over-thecounter (OTC) market between private parties. Firms and financial institutions dominate the swaps market, with few (if any) individuals ever participating. Because swaps occur on the OTC market, there is always the risk of a counterparty defaulting on the swap.

SWAP MARKET
The first interest rate swap occurred between IBM and the World Bank in 1981. However, despite their relative youth, swaps have exploded in popularity. In 1987, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association reported that the swaps market had a total notional value of $865.6 billion. By mid-2006, this figure exceeded $250 trillion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. That's more than 15 times the size of the U.S. public equities market.

PLAIN VANILLA SWAP

The most common and simplest swap is a "plain vanilla" interest rate swap. In this swap, Party A agrees to pay Party B a predetermined, fixed rate of interest on a notional principal on specific dates for a specified period of time. Concurrently, Party B agrees to make payments based on a floating interest rate to Party A on that same notional principal on the same specified dates for the same specified time period. In a plain vanilla swap, the two cash flows are paid in the same currency. The specified payment dates are called settlement dates, and the time between are called settlement periods. Because swaps are customized contracts, interest payments may be made annually, quarterly, monthly, or at any other interval determined by the parties.

EXAMPLE OF PLAIN VANILLA SWAP

On Dec. 31, 2006, Company A and Company B enter into a fiveyear swap with the following terms: Company A pays Company B an amount equal to 6% per annum on a notional principal of $20 million.

Company B pays Company A an amount equal to one-year LIBOR + 1% per annum on a notional principal of $20 million.
LIBOR, or London Interbank Offer Rate, is the interest rate offered by London banks on deposits made by other banks in the eurodollar markets. The market for interest rate swaps frequently (but not always) uses LIBOR as the base for the floating rate. For simplicity, let's assume the two parties exchange payments annually on December 31, beginning in 2007 and concluding in 2011

CONT..Eg
At the end of 2007, Company A will pay Company B $20,000,000 * 6% = $1,200,000. On Dec. 31, 2006, one-year LIBOR was 5.33%; therefore, Company B will pay Company A $20,000,000 * (5.33% + 1%) = $1,266,000. In a plain vanilla interest rate swap, the floating rate is usually determined at the beginning of the settlement period. Normally, swap contracts allow for payments to be netted against each other to avoid unnecessary payments. Here, Company B pays $66,000, and Company A pays nothing. At no point does the principal change hands, which is why it is referred to as a "notional" amount. Figure 1 shows the cash flows between the parties, which occur annually (in this example).

Cash flow for plain vanilla IRS

Plain Vanilla Foreign Currency Swap

The plain vanilla currency swap involves exchanging principal and fixed interest payments on a loan in one currency for principal and fixed interest payments on a similar loan in another currency. Unlike an interest rate swap, the parties to a currency swap will exchange principal amounts at the beginning and end of the swap. The two specified principal amounts are set so as to be approximately equal to one another, given the exchange rate at the time the swap is initiated.

EXAMPLE OF CURRENCY SWAP

Company C, a U.S. firm, and Company D, a European firm, enter into a five-year currency swap for $50 million. Let's assume the exchange rate at the time is $1.25 per euro (e.g. the dollar is worth 0.80 euro). First, the firms will exchange principals. So, Company C pays $50 million, and Company D pays 40 million euros. This satisfies each company's need for funds denominated in another currency (which is the reason for the swap).

CASH FLOW STREAM

EXCHANGE OF INTEREST PAYMENTS

Company C has borrowed euros, it must pay interest in euros based on a euro interest rate. Likewise, Company D, which borrowed dollars, will pay interest in dollars, based on a dollar interest rate. For this example, let's say the agreed-upon dollar-denominated interest rate is 8.25%, and the euro-denominated interest rate is 3.5%. Thus, each year, Company C pays 40,000,000 euros * 3.50% = 1,400,000 euros to Company D. Company D will pay Company C $50,000,000 * 8.25% = $4,125,000.

CURRENCY SWAP PRINCIPAL REPAYMENT

Finally, at the end of the swap (usually also the date of the final interest payment), the parties re-exchange the original principal amountsThese principal payments are unaffected by exchange rates at the time.

About LIBOR
LIBOR stands for London InterBank Offered Rate. LIBOR is an indicative average interest rate at which a selection of banks (the panel banks) are prepared to lend one another unsecured funds on the London money market. Although reference is often made to the LIBOR interest rate, there are actually a lot of different LIBOR interest rates. LIBOR is calculated for 7 different maturities and for 5 different currencies. The official LIBOR interest rates (bbalibor) are announced once a day at around 11:45 a.m. London time by Thomson Reuters on behalf of the British Bankers' Association (BBA). The rates may only be published by partners of the BBA like us. This website shows the current LIBOR interest rates daily between 5 and 6 pm London time

LIBOR calculation method

The LIBOR interest rates are not based on actual transactions. On every working day at around 11 a.m. (London time) the panel banks inform Thomson Reuters for each maturity at what interest rate they would expect to be able to raise a substantial loan in the interbank money market at that moment. The reason that the measurement is not based on actual transactions is because not every bank borrows substantial amounts for each maturity every day. Once Thomson Reuters has collected the rates from all panel banks, the highest and lowest 25% of value are eliminated. An average is calculated of the 50% remaining mid values in order to produce the official LIBOR (bbalibor) rate

The significance of the LIBOR interest rates

LIBOR is viewed as the most important benchmark in the world for short-term interest rates. On the professional financial markets LIBOR is used as the base rate for a large number of financial products such as futures, options and swaps. Banks also use the LIBOR interest rates as the base rate when setting the interest rates for loans, savings and mortgages. The fact that LIBOR is often treated as the base rate for other products is the reason why LIBOR interest rates are monitored with great interest by a large number of professionals and private individuals worldwide.

LIBOR currencies
Originally (in 1986) LIBOR was published for 3 currencies: the US dollar, the pound sterling and the Japanese yen. Over the years that followed the number of LIBOR currencies grew to a maximum of 16. A number of these currencies merged into the euro in 2000. At the moment we have LIBOR rates in the following 5 currencies (click on the currency for the current interest rate for each maturity): American dollar - USD LIBOR British pound sterling - GBP LIBOR European euro - EUR LIBOR Japanese yen - JPY LIBOR Swiss franc - CHF LIBOR

LIBOR maturities
Because there are 7 different maturities there are a lot of different LIBOR rates in total. 1 month 2 months 3 months 6 months 12 month