Foreign exchange rates
Sometimes, a transaction happens with a US-issued payment card outside the US. Or, it can occur within the US using a non-US-issued card. These transactions require changing from one currency to another.
The foreign exchange (FX) rates API makes it easy to access the conversion rate for the currencies of two different countries.
Currency conversion rates are indicative. This means they are dynamic, not fixed.
Conversion rates depend on:
- The currency pair
- The network exchange rate
Cross River provides you with the real-time foreign exchange rate in the currency of the party receiving the payment. Cross River FX Rates reflect the rates now available in financial networks.
In the case of Visa and MasterCard, the API responds to a function call with a list of rate data from the card networks. These rates can differ between networks. They are updated once each day. The Forex Rates API provides clear information about any network processing transactions.
For example, suppose a customer from Sweden wants to buy products from your American online store. As a merchant partner, you need to perform an international transaction. That's because the customer is buying in kroner (the currency of Sweden) products being sold in US dollars.
Cross River provides a call to the FX Rate API endpoint. You make this call before performing the transaction request.
These rates are most useful when working with multi-currency or cross-border transactions.
In addition to the current exchange rate, the FX Rates API also reflects the markup fee a network charges for a foreign transaction.
For transaction settlement, the currency conversion rate returned by the API may differ from the actual rate of exchange offered in the market.
The FX Rates function call is standalone. It returns the exchange rate without actually determining the international transaction.
Click here for details on the FX Rates API endpoint.
