Exchange is the one line on our price list without a number next to it, and the one where providers in this market hide the most. This article explains how we price it: one public reference rate, one margin agreed with you in advance, and a rate that is held from the moment you confirm until the payment leaves. It also explains how to read the confirmation, so you can check the arithmetic yourself.
Start from a rate you can look up
Every exchange starts from the mid-market rate: the midpoint between what the market is buying and selling a currency for at that moment. It is not a rate anyone trades at. It is the reference every other rate is a distance from, and it is public. Norvix reads it from [reference rate source] at the time you request a quote, and the confirmation shows the reference we used and when we read it.
Norvix accounts hold EUR and USD, so the pairs in question are those two, in either direction.
One margin, agreed before you need it
On top of the reference rate we add one margin. It is a percentage, it is agreed with you on the first call against your expected volume, and it does not change mid-month. It does not change with the day of the week, the size of the payment, or how quickly you need it.
That is the whole price. There is no second spread built into the rate, no exchange fee on a separate line, and no difference between the rate you were quoted and the rate that is applied. The margin itself is [one agreed margin], set per client, and it is printed on the confirmation as a percentage and as an amount.
The SEPA and SWIFT fees on the price list apply to the payment as a payment. They are separate from exchange, and they are shown separately.
The rate you confirm is the rate that leaves. Not the rate at the moment the reviewer releases it.
The rate holds while you sign
A payment with exchange in it usually needs more than one person: whoever prepares it, whoever approves it, and then our own reviewer, since a person reads every payment before it moves. Markets move while that happens.
So the rate is fixed at the moment you confirm the payment, and held for [hold window] while your approvers sign. What the preparer saw is what the approver signs off on, and what the approver signed off on is what leaves the account. If the hold runs out before the last signature, [the payment is re-quoted before it can leave].
The review that follows does not touch the rate. Review is about who the money is going to and why, not about the price of the currency.
How to read the confirmation
Every exchange produces a confirmation, on the payment inside the account and as a document you can download. It carries the same fields every time.
| Line on the confirmation | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Source amount | What leaves your account, in the currency it was held in |
| Reference rate | The mid-market rate we read, with the source and the moment we read it |
| Margin | The one agreed percentage, shown as a rate and as an amount in the source currency |
| Applied rate | The reference adjusted by the margin: the number to check |
| Target amount | What arrives, before any payment fee |
| Payment fee | The SEPA or SWIFT charge from the price list, on its own line |
| Rate held until | The moment the quote would have expired |
To check it, divide the target amount by the source amount. The result should equal the applied rate, and the applied rate should sit the stated margin away from the reference rate. If it does not, tell your manager, and we will show our working.
What is not on the confirmation
On an international wire, the banks between us and the recipient may take their own charge. That is not exchange and it is not ours. Before you send, you choose who bears it, and the choice is recorded on the payment.
Why we publish the structure and not one number
The margin depends on the client, which is why the price list says [one agreed margin] rather than a figure. We would rather write the words than print a number that turns out not to apply to you. What does not vary is everything around it: the reference, the single margin, the hold, and a confirmation you can check line by line.
Most of the cost of exchange, at most providers, sits in the part you cannot see. We have tried to leave nothing there.