Interest Rate Swaps

Manage Interest Rate Risk: Interest rate swaps can be used to manage the interest rate risk in a portfolio by allowing market participants to exchange a stream of fixed interest payments for a stream of floating interest payments, or vice versa, which can help to mitigate the impact of rising or falling interest rates on the value of the portfolio.

Enhance Yields: You can enhance the yield of a portfolio using interest rate swaps by allowing market participants to take advantage of favourable interest rate differentials between different markets or currencies.

Improve Diversification: By using interest rate swaps, investors can diversify their portfolio by adding exposure to different markets or currencies, which can help to reduce overall portfolio risk.

Hedge Interest Rate Exposure: Interest rate swaps can be used as a hedging tool to offset the interest rate exposure of a portfolio. For example, a fixed rate borrower can use an interest rate swap to pay floating rate, thus hedging the interest rate risk.

Create Synthetic Positions: Create synthetic positions by using interest rate swaps which can be used to replicate the cash flows of an underlying asset without actually owning the asset. This can be useful for investors who want to gain exposure to a specific market or asset class without incurring the costs or risks associated with owning the underlying asset.

Enhance Yields on Fixed Rate Assets: Interest rate swaps can be used to enhance the yield on fixed rate assets by swapping the fixed rate for a floating rate, thus taking advantage of favourable interest rate differentials between different markets or currencies.