Currency Conversion (FX)
Overview of how currency conversion in a payment or card transaction works.
Modulr supports currency conversion between customer accounts on platform this can be used in two ways. Currency conversion is permitted between any supported currency where one currency in the conversion is a Tier 1 currency.
Customer initiated internal (A2A) transfers
A Modulr customer can use the /sendpayment endpoint to initiate a transfer between its accounts that includes a currency conversion like any other internal transfer - see Internal Account to Account transfers for more information.
The source and destination account currencies determine the conversion that takes place, and you can choose if you want to fix the amount debited in the source currency or credited in the destination currency.
Currency Conversion can only take place between accounts that you own as a customer. You cannot make a direct transfer to someone else's account on the Modulr platform in another currency.
Is currency conversion available to any customer?Currency Conversion is available to direct customers of Modulr as standard. It can be disabled for your customer if required (see FAQ)
If you are an Introduced Client of Modulr through a Partner, your partner will need to have accepted enablement of Currency Conversion and updated your Terms and Conditions to reflect the service.
Modulr SME customers are not currently enabled for Currency Conversion. This will be rolled out shortly.
An internal A2A transfer with currency conversion requested by calling the /sendpayment endpoint is executed immediately at the prevailing rate for the exchange from our providers. Details of the conversion including a comparison Mid Market Rate (MMR), our fees and effective Customer (Live FX) rate are returned.
Funds availablity of an A2A transfer involving currency conversionA2A transfers involving currency conversion are executed immediately for the debit of the source currency. The destination currency is credited as a pending transaction until the conversion is complete with our provider(s).
When querying the account balance endpoint, any pending transacitons will be shown as the difference between the
availableBalanceandbalancewhen theincludePendingTransactionsparameter is set totrue.When funds are released from pending a PAYIN webook event will be triggered. Depending on the currency being exchanged and market hours, this will typically be within a few hours for major currencies. See conversion timing and cut-offs for more information
Optional Quote for currency conversion ahead of A2A Transfer
Optional - If you want to obtain a rate for a currency conversion before executing the internal A2A transfer, a Quote API endpoint is also available. This endpoint allows you to 'lock' a rate for a given currency exchange for a limited period (120 seconds) and returns a quoteId that can be passed into a subsequent call to create an internal A2A transfer within the expiryDateTime of the quote. See Create a Currency Conversion Quote for more information
Important information on Quote validityAny quote obtained must be passed as part of a subsequent call within the
expiryDateTime- passing an expired quote will result in a validation error & the transfer will not be executed.Failing to pass a
quoteIDpreviously obtained will mean the internal A2A transfer is executed at the currently prevailing rate at that time irregardless of any quote obtained.
See FAQs below for more informaton on common questions related to internal A2A transfers with currency conversion.
Dynamic (rule triggered) conversion for Card Authorisation (coming soon)
Customers that issue virtual cards can now choose to set up funding rules that will dynamically execute an immediate currency conversion from an account linked in another currency via a Funding Rule attached to the account. The Funding Rule is triggered whenever an incoming Card authorisation or settlement comes in and there is insufficient balance in the account.
This allows virtual cards to be more flexible in funding, a customer can keep a main balance for treasury purposes in their preferred currency, and still issue virtual cards against accounts in other currencies. All incoming transactions against these accounts will trigger attached funding rules to debit the main account.
Important information about rule triggered conversionFunding rules applied to accounts trigger immedate conversion; there is no equivalent of a pre-conversion quote because of the card network timeframe for authorisation
Funding rules deliver funds immediatley to allow the card authorisation to complete, funds placed in the card linked account are reserved and cannot be withdrawn. If the account contains funds that partically cover the incoming authorisation, the funding rule will only request the amount to cover the difference from the linked account.
If the linked account has insufficient funds, the conversion will not take place and the Card Authorisation that triggered funding rule will decline.
See FAQs below for more informaton on common questions related to Dynamic (rule triggered) conversion for Card Authorisation.
Supported Currencies
Currency Conversion is being rolled out in stages across the Modulr platform. All currencies will be supported soon, at present the following currencies are supported across the types of conversion
| Tier | A2A Transfer | Dynamic (rule triggered) for Card Authorisation |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | EUR, GBP, USD | EUR, GBP, USD |
| Tier 4 | TRY |
Trying to convert any other currency or attach a funding rule to an account unsupported will throw a validation error in our APIs.
Limits on Currency Conversion
Currency conversions have transacitonal limits per transfer. These limits are
| A2A Transfer | Dynamic (rule triggered) for Card Authorisation |
|---|---|
| GBP £100,000 per transfer or the equivalent in supported currencies at the prevailing exchange rate. | GBP £25,000 per transfer (e.g incoming Card Authorisation) or the equivalent in supported currencies at the prevailing exchange rate. |
Any transfer requested over these limits will not be executed; in the case of trigger of Funding Rule from Card Authorisation this will result in a decline of the transaction.
FAQ on Currency Conversion
Can I perform currency conversion as part of a payment off the Modulr platform?No. Transfers with currency conversion must be between accounts within the same customer on the Modulr platform.
Can I make a transfer to another customer's account at Modulr in a different currency?No. A transfer with currency conversion must be between accounts within the same customer on the Modulr platform. If you want to make a transfer to another customer (on or off the Modulr platform) you must convert to the currency the cusotmer is using through a conversion between your own accounts, and pay in the correct currency from your account.
Can I cancel or reverse a Currency Conversion?Once initiated, currency conversions are irrevocable. To reverse a conversion you must make a seperate conversion from the orgininal destination currency to the original source currency, accepting that any movement in prevailing rate at the time of subsequent separate conversion may result in a gain/loss in amount.
How do I find out the fee for a Currency Conversion?Every internal A2A transfer including currency conversion returns an
fxblock with full details of rate, benchmark and fees. This bock is also available when querying a transaction using the retrieve payments endpoint for any historical transaction
What are the rates for Currency Conversion?The default rates (spread) applied by Modulr above a benchmark rate is published on the Currencies and Conversion rates page.
If you are a customer with regular volumes/values of currency conversion to execute, you may be able benefit from preferential rates for commited transaciton volume/value. Speak to your account manager about this.
Do I need to get a Quote before executing a Currency Conversion?There is no need to obtain a Quote before each conversion; this is a convenience function that is particuarly useful if (for example) consructing a Customer Experience (CX) for an end user allowing them to see the values before electing to execute.
If you do not require this, calling the Create a Payment endpoint without a
QuoteIDwill automatically execute a quote, book and initiate the transfer automatically in a single operation
Do I have to use the API to initiate a Currency ConversionCustomers are not limited to the API. The Modulr portal also supports Internal transfers with currency conversion in it's CX. See our portal user guides for how to do this.
Can I perform Currency Conversion to a currency where I don't hold an account in one of the currencies?No. Every internal transfer including currency conversion must have a source and destination account in the respective currencies needed.
If you are a Direct Client of Moudlr and you don't have an account in a particular currency and would like to open one, speak to your account manager if the currency desired is not available to you in your agreement.
Can I disable currency conversion between my Accounts?Yes, Modulr support or implementation can specifically disable currency conversion at the Partner or Customer level if required.
Can I obtain a quote and use it at a future time/date?Quotes are valid for 2 minutes (120 seconds) only. These are called quotes for immediate (SPOT) transactions.
Modulr does not support future dated (FORWARD) transactions currently. Speak to your account manager if you would like to register interest for this in future.
FAQ on dynamic (rule triggered) conversion for Card Authorisation
What happens if there are some funds on the card linked account but not enough to cover full Card Authorisation request?The Funding Rule attached to the account will execute a transfer with currency conversion for the difference between the current available funds and the card authorisation
What happens for card pre-authorisation?A pre-authorisation is still a card authorisation, if it is for a non-zero amount it will trigger a a transfer with currency conversion to the card linked account.
What happens when Merchant settled amounts are greater than the initial authorisation?A subsequent auth/settlement for an additonal amount will trigger a a transfer with currency conversion
What happens when Merchant settled amounts are less than the initial authorisation?A subsequent settlement for less that the intial authorisation will leave the difference in the card account.
Updated about 8 hours ago