Bank of Canada begins publishing new foreign exchange rate data
The Bank of Canada today began publishing new data on the foreign exchange (FX) rate for 26 currencies, intended for statistical, analytical and informational purposes only. As previously announced, these new FX rates will be published once a day, by 16:30 Eastern time (ET), in the form of a single indicative rate per currency pair, which represents a daily average rate for that currency against the Canadian dollar.
To allow time for users of the Bank’s FX rates to make any necessary adjustments, the Bank will continue to publish existing FX rates alongside these new FX rates from 1 March to 28 April 2017. This means that, during this period, the following will continue to be posted at their usual times: noon and closing exchange rates, high and low FX rates for a given period, and all forward exchange rates and forward points.
To accommodate the new rates, the Exchange Rate section of the Bank’s website will be reformatted, and some data will be relocated. The URLs of the existing FX tools will, however, remain the same.
As of 1 May 2017, the Bank will publish the new exchange rate data, as described above, for the 26 currencies only. At that time, it will cease publishing new data for all other existing exchange rates, including noon and closing, high and low, and all forward exchange rates and forward points. The Bank will continue to publish monthly and annual averages for the new FX rates as well as for the Canadian-dollar effective exchange rate index (CERI). Past exchange rate data under the old methodology will remain archived on the Bank’s website.
For more information, consult the associated calculation methodology and background information documents.
Additional notes
- In February 2016, the Bank announced its intention to make a series of changes to the number, frequency and calculation methodology of its published FX rates. These changes reinforce the distinction between FX rate fixings used as benchmarks for transactional purposes and Bank of Canada exchange rates that are provided as a public good—for statistical, analytical and informational purposes only.
- Changes to the FX rates published by the Bank of Canada are being implemented after wide public consultation (including almost 17,000 responses to a 2014 survey) and are being undertaken in the context of broader international official sector work on the design of FX reference rates.
- The Bank began publishing exchange rates when FX markets were much less transparent than they are now. Over time, the emergence of electronic trading platforms has greatly improved pricing transparency for both market participants and the broader public. Exchange rates are now readily available, either continuously (in real time) or at a specific point in time, from multiple trading platforms, Internet sources and data vendors.
- The list of 26 currencies captures the vast majority of FX transactions conducted against the Canadian dollar and reflects the combination of the top 20 currencies by trading volume (based on the Bank for International Settlements triennial FX turnover survey) and those of Canada’s top 20 trading partners (based on Statistics Canada’s International Merchandise Trade Database). This list will be reviewed and adjusted, if required, every three years.
- The 26 currencies to be published effective 1 March are (in alphabetical order)
| Australian dollar | Peruvian new sol |
| Brazilian real | Russian ruble |
| British pound sterling | Saudi riyal |
| Chinese renminbi | Singapore dollar |
| European euro | South African rand |
| Hong Kong dollar | South Korean won |
| Indian rupee | Swedish krona |
| Indonesian rupiah | Swiss franc |
| Japanese yen | Taiwanese dollar |
| Malaysian ringgit | Thai baht |
| Mexican peso | Turkish lira |
| New Zealand dollar | US dollar |
| Norwegian krone | Vietnamese dong |