Forward rate agreement 远期利率协议
In finance, a forward rate agreement (FRA) is a forward contract, an over-the-counter contract between parties that determines the rate of interest, or the currency exchange rate, to be paid or received on an obligation beginning at a future start date. The contract will determine the rates to be used along with the termination date and notional value. On this type of agreement, it is only the differential that is paid on the notional amount of the contract. It is paid on the effective date. The reference rate is fixed one or two days before the effective date, dependent on the market convention for the particular currency. FRAs are over-the counter derivatives. FRAs are very similar to swaps except that in a FRA a payment is only made once at maturity. Instruments such as interest rate swap could be viewed as a chain of FRAs.