A corporation enters into a $35 million national principal plain vanilla interest rate swap. The swap calls for the corporation to pay a fixed rate and receive a floating rate of LIBOR. The payments will be made every three months for one year. The term structure of LIBOR when the swap is initiated is as follows:
Months Rate (%)
3 7.00
6 7.25
9 7.45
4 7.55
Assume all of rates are continuously compounded.
a. Determine the fixed rate on the swap.