---
title: International transactions
slug: concepts/payments/cos-card-payments/international-transactions
description: International transactions involve cross-border or multi-currency payments. Functions include OFAC checks for compliance and FX rates for transparent currency conversion.
docTags: 
createdAt: 2024-08-12T08:00:58.491Z
---

## Cross River international card transactions

:::hint{type="info"}
The same Cross River Transaction APIs serve domestic as well as international transactions.
:::

An international transaction involves the following:

- *Multi-country*. A cross-border transaction, where the origination and destination countries for the payment are different. Here, the country of the card issuer determines the conditions of the transaction.

## Currency exchange

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



## Real-time exchange rates

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.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Mastercard**. Rates change every day at **15:05 EST** in the US. They remain valid for **24 hours**. Let's say a transaction occurred on May 1st, 2023 at 04:00 EST. The rate that applies to the transaction would be the rate set on April 30th, 2023. That rate covers the period from 15:05 EST on April 30th to 15:05 EST on May 1st.

**Visa**. Rates change once a day at **19:00 EST** (midnight GMT). Over the weekend, the system uses the rates from Friday.
:::

## Example

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 kronor (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.

:::hint{type="info"}
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.
:::

## API reference

Learn about the [exchange rate](docId\:c7lRwhp81EmpW2u9lN4i-) API endpoint.