Briefly discuss some variants of the basic interest rate and currency swaps.

Answer:  In place of the basic fixed-for-floating interest rate swap, there are as well zero-coupon-for-floating rate swaps in which the fixed rate payer makes just one zero-coupon payment at maturity on the notional value.  There are as well floating-for-floating rate swaps where every side is tied to a different floating rate index or a dissimilar frequency of similar index. Currency swaps require not be fixed-for-fixed; fixed-for-floating and floating-for-floating rate currency swaps are often arranged. Furthermore, both currency and interest rate swaps can be amortizing also non-amortizing.