Set Up Currency Settlement For Free

Prior to expiration, traders have a number of options to either close out or extend their open positions without holding the trade to expiration. For those traders who want to take their contract to expiration, there are two ways an FX contract can be settled: cash settlement or physical delivery of the currency.

Currency prices are determined in two ways: fixed rates and floating rates. Fixed rates are pegged to a currency while floating rates move freely with market demand.

Standard settlement periods for most currencies is 2 business days, with some pairs such as CAD/USD settling next business day. In order for a date to be a valid settlement date for an FX transaction, the central banks for both currencies must be open for settlements.

For example, an investor wants to purchase 1,000 euros with Japanese yen. The exchange rate between these two currencies is 1 EUR to 130 JPY. Here, euros would be the transaction currency, and the Japanese yen would be the settlement currency.

As an example of cross-currency settlement risk, consider a U.S. bank that purchases 10 million euros in the spot market at the exchange rate of EUR 1 = USD 1.12. This means that at settlement, the U.S. bank will remit US$11.2 million and, in exchange, will receive 10 million euros from the counterparty to this trade.

LCS allows exporters and importers to transact in their respective domestic currencies. This plays a productive impact on transaction costs and processing time. Under this system, traders have the flexibility to choose the payment currency for efficient cross-border transactions.

For those traders who want to take their contract to expiration, there are two ways an FX contract can be settled: cash settlement or physical delivery of the currency. For many FX futures, the last trading day is generally the second business day prior to the third Wednesday of the contract month.