Temenos Digital
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Foreign Exchange (FX) Rates and Calculator

A Foreign Exchange (FX) rate is the relative value between two currencies. A user with the required permissions can use the feature to calculate the exchange buy and sell rates between the base and quote currencies.

Key Terms

  • Base Currency. Also called the transaction currency, is the first currency appearing in a currency pair quotation followed by the second part of the quotation, called the quote currency or the counter currency. In forex, the base currency represents how much of the quote currency is needed for you to get one unit of the base currency. For example, if you were looking at the USD/GBP currency pair, the US Dollar is the base currency and the GBP will be the quote currency.
  • Buy Rate. This is the rate at which you buy foreign currency back from travelers to exchange into local currency. For example, if you were returning from America, you would exchange your dollars back into euros at the buy rate.
  • Sell Rate. This is the rate at which we sell foreign currency in exchange for local currency. For example, if you were heading to Canada, you would exchange your currency for Canadian dollars at the sell rate.
  • FX Calculator. A tool to convert one currency into another using the exchange rate. For the FX calculator, the "Buy Rate" under TT Rates is considered for arriving at the conversion value.
  • Telegraphic Transfer (TT). TT buying rate indicates the rate at which a bank converts foreign inward remittances to local currency. TT Selling rate indicates the rate at which the bank sends an outward remittance through telegraphic transfer.
  • Travelers cheques (TC). TC selling rate is the rate at which banks sell Travelers cheques and receives in local currency. Obviously, the TC buying rate will be lesser than the TT selling rate.

Base Currency

  • The base currency is determined by the currency set by the logged-in user. The base currency on the form is a static field and therefore cannot be changed.
  • The base currency logic is explained in the Configuration section.

Permission

On the landing page, the Base Currency and calculator are visible if the user has permission to following actions within "FX Rates" feature:

  • FX Rates view
  • FX Rates view calculator

Menu Path

  • Online Banking: Side menu > Exchange Rates
  • Mobile Banking: Menu > Exchange Rates

The application displays the Exchange Rate screen.

The screen displays the following information:

  • Base Currency: The base currency (abbreviation followed by name as in, USD - US Dollar) with provision to enter the number of units. The base currency is determined by the currency set by the logged-in user.
  • To Currency: The list of recent or popular currencies (quote currency) to select for conversion, and calculate and display the buy and sell rates. The last five currencies are considered as recent.
  • The exchange rate for the selected quote currency for one unit with the following details:
    • The quoted or buying Currency
    • Currency Buy rate
    • Currency Sell rate
    • TT Buy (Telegraphic Transfer) rate
    • TT Sell rate
    • TC Buy (Traveler Cheques) rate
    • TC Sell rate
  • The list of buy and sell rates for recently selected currencies with the following details. This is applicable only in online banking application:
    • The quoted or buying Currency
    • Currency Buy rate
    • Currency Sell rate
    • TT Buy rate
    • TT Sell rate
    • TC Buy rate
    • TC Sell rate

Calculate the exchange rate

  1. Enter the number of units in the Base Currency box (for example, 10).
  2. Select the recently used (last five currencies) or any popular currency from the list.
    • Use the search option to search by currency code or currency name (for example, AUD - Australian Dollar). Always the most recently searched currency appears first in the list. Based on search data from the previous session, the recent currencies will be updated.
    • By default, the most recent currency used is selected.


  3. The application calculates the buy and sell rates using the FX Calculator and displays the Currency Buy (buy rate) value equivalent to the number of units of the base currency. You can click the + sign and select various other buy and sell rates from the list:
    • Currency Sell
    • TT Buy
    • TT Sell
    • TC Buy
    • TC Sell

  4. The application also displays the exchange rate for the selected quote currency for one unit of the base currency for reference.

Search currency

Use the search option to search by currency code or currency name (for example, AUD or Dollar). Always the most recently searched currency appears first in the list. Based on search data from the previous session, the recent currencies are updated and based on the count of recent currencies, popular currency is displayed.

If the user searches more than five currencies, then the next time when the user logs in, the popular currencies are not displayed and only the recent currencies are displayed.

Filter rates

Filter the rates in the exchange rate for the selected recent or popular currency list. This is applicable only in online banking application. The following filters are available:

  • All. By default, this option is selected.
  • Currency. The application displays the following fields - Currency Buy and Currency Sell.
  • TT. The application displays the following fields - TT Buy and TT Sell.
  • TC. The application displays the following fields - TC Buy and TC Sell.

Configuration

Base Currency

  • The base currency is determined by the currency set by the logged-in user. The base currency on the form is a static field and therefore cannot be changed.
  • Base currency logic in mock environment: The default currency is USD – US Dollar.
  • Base currency logic in a Transact connected environment:
    • Retail user. The Base currency is picked from the "Company book" field in CUSTOMER table in Transact by passing the retail CIF.
    • Business user. The base currency of the primary company within a contract is considered as the base currency of the logged-in user. The base currency of the principal company is picked from the "Company book" field in CUSTOMER table in Transact by passing the CIF of the principal company.
    • Combined user
      • Scenario 1: In case the Retail profile is maintained (business profile is deprecated), then the base currency is picked from the "Company book" field in CUSTOMER table in Transact by passing the Retail CIF.
      • Scenario 2: In case Business profile is maintained (retail profile is deprecated), then the base currency is picked from the "Company book" field in CUSTOMER table in Transact by passing the Business CIF.
      • Scenario 3: The user has access to multiple contracts. In that case whichever CIF is selected as Primary, the base currency is picked from the "Company book” field in CUSTOMER table in Transact by passing the Primary CIF ID.

Popular and Recent Currencies

  • The popular currencies are derived based on the base currency.
  • The popular currency pair data is stored in DBX DB.
  • The data of five most recently used currency is stored in DBX DB based on the session history.
  • The recent currencies are updated within the session also and based on the last updated currencies in that session, the user will view the next time on logging in to the application.

Buy and Sell Rates

  • In a Transact connected environment, the buy and sell rates are picked from the CURRENCY table in Transact of the respective To currency, for example - USD. These rates are updated in Transact on a daily basis.
  • If a user wants to search the value of any currency, the user must search the Currency in the To Currency field. On selecting the currency, the value is displayed. These rates are updated in Transact daily. The user can see the latest updated value in the client application.
  • In other core/Microservice environment, the buy and sell rates are picked from the Treasury or any other application which is used by the Bank to fetch the live currency rates.
  • For the FX calculator, the "Buy Rate" under Currency Rates is considered as the default for arriving at the conversion value. The user can choose other types as well to view the conversion rates.

Permission Control

  • On the landing page, the Base Currency, FX calculator, and the rates are visible if the user has permission to following actions within "FX Rates" feature:
    • FX Rates view
    • FX Rates view calculator
  • The visibility of each feature is controlled through the permissions defined for the user.
  • The permissions at role and user levels are defined during user creation and while editing the user details after the user is created. In case the user does not have access to any of the features, that option will not be visible on the form and on the menus. The permissions at the company level are defined in the Spotlight application.

APIs

The following APIs are shipped as part of this feature. For the complete list of APIs with more information, see Experience APIs documentation.

API Description
fetchBaseCurrency This API is used to fetch the base currency of the company/bank where user is located.
fetchDashboardCurrencyList This API is used to fetch the list of currencies available with the company/bank.
updateRecentCurrencies This API is used to update the recent currencies searched by the user in the banking application.
fetchCurrencyRates This API is used to fetch the buy and sell rate for a given currency.
fetchDashboardCurrencyRates This API is used to fetch the buy and sell rates for the currencies available with the company/bank.

 

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Published on :
Thursday, May 30, 2024 11:40:49 AM IST