Bank of Canada
The bank of Canada is one of the few online banks that has an easily accessible, powerful and flexible currency conversion tool.
If banks have any such tool they are frequently lower powered – local currency to foreign/ foreign to local currency only, with limited options. Not so in this case.
The bank of Canada's conversion tool will convert to or from approximately 55 different currencies based on the Bank's own “noon exchange rates”.
The currency calculator can be split into 2 sides. For standard currency conversions only the left-hand side needs to be used.
The right hand side deals with dates – you can select the most recent business day (default); the past x number of business days (where you select the value of x); or, between any 2 specific dates stretching back over the last 10 years.
As mentioned, the left hand side is the business end of the converter. Starting from the top the box titled: “Amount” is where you should put the amount of source currency. E.g. if you wanted to convert 1000 Euro into something else this is where you should type 1000 (without any symbols or comas).
Next you have to choose whether you use the nominal rate or the cash rate. The nominal rate is based on the bank of Canada's 12:30 pm rates each day.
The cash rate is essentially the same nominal rate minus 4%, as that figure is the fee normally charged for foreign notes.
The “output type” is where you get to choose whether you want the results just online (the HTML selection, which is default), or whether you would prefer to have them as XML or CSV files too. Don't worry if you don't understand what that means. Those are file types used to import data into databases. Having the currency output in this way would be very useful for some people's analysis, or their specific programs. Leaving this alone is all you need to do if you just want to see the results normally.
The next box down is the “From” drop-down list. Each currency is listed in alphabetical order based on the country name. None of the currencies' three letter codes are listed, which is a bit of a shame.
This box is where you get to select the source currency that you're converting from. e.g. if you were converting 1000 Euro into Vietnamese dong, this is where you would select European Euro.
Presumably the redundant sounding “European” component had to be added to give the currency a specific geographic region.
The box beneath that is the “To” selection box. The same list of destination currencies are there for you to select what you wish to convert into. In our example you would select Vietnamese dong here.
Finally click on the blue “convert” button at the bottom right hand corner of the conversion tool.
This loads a new page with the results on it.
The results page includes the date (which is the date the exchange rate is from, not necessarily today's date); the exchange rate; the foreign currency amount. On this page the countries' 3 letter codes are used.
If you have selected a date range each business day's rate will appear here in a list.
On the whole the tool is both useful and powerful, particularly for gathering historical data.
Rating (out of 5 stars):
- 4 Stars
Link: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/exchform.html