Absolute Rate

Absolute Rate

In a plain vanilla swap, the fixed interest rate. In a plain vanilla swap, the two legs of the swap are a fixed interest rate, say 3.5%, and a floating interest rate, say LIBOR + 0.5%, each calculated over some notional value. Each party pays the other at set intervals over the life of the swap. In this case, the absolute rate is 3.5% over the notional value.