In this presentation we analyse a model for the pricing of vanilla interest rate options (e.g caps/floors and European swaptions). Within that model we specify a parametric form of the terminal distribution of the underlying rate. The driver of the distribution is a Brownian motion and the parametric form is closely linked to local volatility models. We choose the local volatility function such that the model allows analytic pricing of vanilla and CMS options.

The parametrisation in terms of a local volatility function provides transparent intuition of the model parameters as well as high flexibility for smile calibration. Moreover, the linkage to an underlying Brownian motion may be used as a normalising basis for interpolation between expiries and swap terms.