What is the XE.com data feed?
Saasu uses xe.com data feed to provide foreign currency exchange rates (FX rates) in order to calculate the conversion of foreign currency amount transactions back into your base currency.
You will see that Saasu has a currency conversion widget in our transaction screen that allows you to enter your own FX rates or tick the XE.com checkbox to load a rate from a feed for the transaction date.
How close is XE.com to my banks Foreign Exchange (FX) rates?
XE.com is a very widely used service for FX data feed information. The rates are based on a set of Spot FX interbank two-way prices.
Importantly, any one bank doesn’t make up the FX marketplace, so we can’t take a feed from a bank. Hundreds of banks make FX prices in the professional market every second, so aggregate data about interbank FX prices will tend to reflect market consensus over time. The FX market is much bigger than any one bank.
Your bank will also charge you fees and a spread (the difference between where they buy and sell a currency). So the rate you get will differ depending on how much they make in converting you money to another currency. This is where you will see money end up in the FX Gain and Loss account. For example, your bank may be indicating 0.75/0.79 for the Australian Dollar to the US Dollar but XE.com might indicate 0.77 – A rate which is much closer to where banks would trade FX with each other. When you apply a payment to your transaction and enter the exact FX rate, you will notice this FX Gain and Loss appear in your reporting.