Forex

When cross-currency transactions are posted to our system we have to use an FX rate to convert between source and destination currencies. By default, the system uses the latest rates available to us - however you can optionally lock in rates for a period of time such that you will know the exact rate being used for any transaction.

Our system updates rates on a periodic basis, and as soon as the new rates are available they are used for any subsequent transactions. If you want to use these prevailing rates you don't need to do anything special - just call the API and we'll use the most recent FX rate...

POST api/transactionRequests

{
  SendValue: 193.55,
  SendCurrency: "GBP",
  Recipient: {
    Name: "B BAGGINS",
    Country: "GB",
    Currency: "GBP",
    RecipientReference: "Testing",
    Account: {
      SortCode: "112233",
      AccountNumber: "22233445"
    }
  }
}

However, if you want to use locked in rates you need to create these locked in rates (which is covered in detail in the document on Fixed FX rates ), which returns a unique RateGroupId value to you. You can then use this in your API calls...

POST api/transactionRequests

{
  SendValue: 193.55,
  SendCurrency: "GBP",
  Recipient: {
    Name: "B BAGGINS",
    Country: "GB",
    Currency: "GBP",
    RecipientReference: "Testing",
    Account: {
      SortCode: "112233",
      AccountNumber: "22233445"
    }
  },
  RateGroupId: 992
}

Here the addition of the RateGroupId element ensures that rates from this set are used.

Rate Groups

When you lock in rates, you are creating what we call a Rate Group. This is a set of FX rates, for currencies that you choose, that are locked for a period of time and are given a unique identifier, the RateGroupId. This ID is what's used when creating a transaction, and you can also query the API to retrieve a rate group should you need to.

For more information about rate groups and the API associated with them, please see Fixed FX rates.

Pro's and Con's

Using locked in rates allows you to run a FX conversion on your system and know that the same will apply on ours - so if you are displaying a send value and a receive value to your end users then using locked rates is most probably the best option.

Locked rates are however (generally) more expensive than market rates, as we have to add a small margin onto the rates to handle movements in the FX market. If you want your transactions to be as inexpensive as possible, don't use locked in rates.