HARA-KIRI SWAP

An interest rate or cross-currency swap devoid of any profit margin for the originator. The term gets its name from Japanese banks' and securities houses' 1980s strategy of offerings very low rates in order to obtain business. In Japan, hara-kiri is a form of slow ritual suicide; the swaps were dubbed hara-kiri because they turned out to be a form of financial suicide for the institutions that offered them.