Supported FX Feeds

Currency Server can load currency exchange rate data in a variety of data formats and transmission protocols, supporting major official and free data feeds, as well as commercial and subscription-based services. (Automatic updates of non-exchange rate data are also supported, and are covered in the Currency World Monitor section.)

Software Setup

Even if you are in a hurry, we recommend that you read at least the Getting Started section of the Currency Server Documentation.

To choose a provider of exchange rate data open the FX Servers tab of Currency Server Manager and add or edit a server. If you added the Multiple FX Servers option to the software, you can also choose more than one server, and decide what to do with data from multiple servers (e.g. aggregate or cross-check the data, or use backup servers for failover purposes).

Types of Feeds

	Related Links Adding Support for a New FX Feed Considerations on Exchange Rate Data Providers Currency Popularity Charts FX Data by Currency System, Inc.

In practice, the exchange rate data feeds supported by the software can be grouped into three categories:

• Public and official feeds (free)
• Commercial feeds (subscription-based)
• Aggregated feed by Cloanto (free to software customers)

A choice you may have to face is whether to use free and official exchange rate data, or if instead you should subscribe to a commercial service, which may offer data for more currencies. The following text may help you:

• 3-143 - Considerations on Exchange Rate Data Providers

Since most providers supply a higher number of currencies than is practical for general purpose applications, we recommend to lock the list of currencies in the Active Currencies tab after a careful selection. The following article contains more information:

• 3-148 - Currency Popularity Charts

The following sections describe some of the data sources which are supported by Currency Server. For additional information concerning subscription options, terms of use and more details about the currency data please refer to the respective provider (e.g. by clicking the Web Information link in the Add/Edit Server dialog of Currency Server Manager).

Public and Official Feeds

Currency Server supports several public and official free feeds of exchange rate data. The following data feeds are directly supported by the filters included with the software:

• Bank of Canada: Daily reference rates published by the Bank of Canada. The data is usually updated around 12:00 EST. This system always returns the most current rates.
• Bank of Latvia: Daily reference rates published by the Bank of Latvia. This system always returns the most current rates.
• Central Bank of the Russian Federation: Daily reference rates published by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. This system is queried by date, with the applicable previous data being returned if the requested data is unavailable or not yet available.
• European Central Bank: Daily reference rates published by the European Central Bank. The data is usually updated around 14:30 CET (08:30 EST). This system always returns the most current rates.
• Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Daily reference rates published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Includes both "10 AM mid rates", usually updated around 10:00 EST, and "12 PM buying rates", usually updated around 12:00 EST. This system is queried by date, with an error being returned if the requested data is unavailable or not yet available.
• International Monetary Fund: Daily reference rates published by the International Monetary Fund. The data is usually updated around 12:00 EST. This system always returns the most current rates.
• National Bank of Denmark: Daily reference rates published by the National Bank of Denmark. The data is usually updated around 14:15 CET (08:15 EST). This system always returns the most current rates.
• National Bank of Slovakia: Daily reference rates published by the National Bank of Slovakia. The data is usually updated around 12:00 CET (06:00 EST). This system is queried by date, with an error being returned if the requested data is unavailable or not yet available.

Commercial Feeds

Currency Server supports the transmission protocols and data formats used by the subscription-based services of the following companies:

• Oanda Corporation makes available exchange rate data in a variety of protocols and formats, including FXP, FXPD and FXCSV, all of which are supported by the software. This system always returns the most current rates. > more
• Xenon Laboratories Inc. makes available exchange rate data in a variety of protocols and formats. Currency Server supports the CSV (comma-separated values) format of Xenon Laboratories' Data Feed Service. In order to preserve maximum precision for euro triangulation purposes, we recommend to ask for EUR as the base currency unit when subscribing to the service. This system always returns the most current rates. > more

These providers generally also include less popular rates in their feeds (Level 1, 2 and 3).

Aggregated Feed by Cloanto

This data feed is available at no charge to licensed Currency Server customers:

• Cloanto Corporation: The data includes a selection of daily rates (Level 1 and 2) provided by multiple official institutions. Currency Data Disclaimers apply. The data is usually updated several times a day between around 15:00 and 19:00 CET (09:00 and 13:00 EST), as different national central banks publish their reference rates. This system always returns the most current rates. > more

Other Data Feeds

Currency Server can support virtually any data source via additional data source filter plug-ins.

The Currency Server documentation explains how data source filters can be created and added to support additional formats, and how the universal XML filter can be configured by means of XPath expressions and other settings. The Examples section on this site contains sample source code of a data conversion filter.

The following article contains more information:

• 7-102 - Adding Support for a New FX Feed

Becoming a Data Provider

When Currency Server collects data, it acts as a client. When it offers exchange rate information and currency server functionality to COM/ActiveX and Web service clients, it acts as a server.

Currency Server includes features which make it possible to extend the server functionality well beyond the standard programming interfaces. For example:

• Custom action modules can be written to write and upload exchange rate data files in INI, CSV, XML or HTML format (e.g. to your LAN, intranet or non-Windows web server)
• Custom validation modules make it possible to offer a subscription-based Web service (you decide who can access is, and how frequently)
• Deployment as part of multiple-server clusters (with central administration and monitoring)
• Deployment as a server to feed data to customized currency calculator clients (e.g. WorldCalc and Euro Calculator)