A currency swap is an exchange between two parties of principal amounts, interest streams, or both, in different currencies, with a reversal at maturity. The caution that matters is that the label covers two related but distinct things. One is the short-dated FX swap used as a funding and liquidity tool — essentially a spot exchange paired with a forward reversal, with no interest payments in between. The other is the longer cross-currency swap, running for years, exchanging periodic interest and usually re-exchanging principal at the end. People conflate them constantly, including in internal documentation. Nothing polices the usage, so before agreeing to anything described as a swap, confirm the tenor, whether principal is exchanged at both ends, and how interest is handled.
Why this entry carries no source list. This lexicon cites an official primary source wherever one exists and says plainly where none does. No body defines this term: it is commercial vocabulary, and what it means in any particular deal is whatever the document says. Citing a bank’s product page, an insurer’s brochure or a consultancy’s explainer would dress one firm’s usage as a general rule. The paragraph above therefore ends by naming what to read instead of the word.