The floating rate loan/interest rate swap combination has become an increasingly widespread financing structure in commercial real estate transactions. In its simplest form, this structure involves a floating rate loan coupled with a separate contractual arrangement between the lender and borrower in which the party having fixed-rate liabilities, the lender, agrees to “swap” interest payments with the party having floating-rate liabilities, the borrower, thereby allowing the borrower to synthetically fix its interest expense on the loan.* This financing structure affords a number of possible advantages to real estate borrowers and lenders alike.