Notes Regarding the Rates To Be Applied

3. Foreign Exchange Rates for Internet Banking

4. Risks of Foreign Currency Transactions

1. Foreign Exchange Rates

There are 2 types of foreign exchange (FX) rates offered by the Bank. Depending on the currency, time of day, and other factors, either a real-time exchange rate or the Board Rate will be offered:

a) Board Rate – is determined by the Bank based on interbank foreign exchange market rates at around 10:00 AM each business day. This rate is available via Internet Banking in about 30 to 60 minutes thereafter. Generally, the Board Rate is effective from the time of announcement until 3:00 PM of the same day and is calculated by taking the Board Mid-rate and adding a foreign exchange commission. For details on foreign exchange commissions, please refer to section 2 below.

At branches and Call Centre, the Board Rate is applied to small transactions that qualify for Tier 1 rates.
On Internet Banking, if real-time rates are not available, the Board Rate is applied regardless of the transaction amount.
If there are significant movements in the foreign exchange markets during the day, the Bank reserves the right to change the Board Rate without prior notice.
For transactions done at the branches or Call Centre before the Board Rate is announced, a tentative Board Rate will be set based on the market rates at around 9:00 AM of each business day. The Bank will apply this tentative Board Mid-rate from its announcement until the announcement of the daily Board Rate. The Bank may change the tentative Board Rate without prior notice.

b) Real-time Rates – are offered to customers based on real-time interbank foreign exchange market rates. A foreign exchange commission (details in section 2 below) will be added and included in the rate. Given that foreign exchange rates will fluctuate in real time, you will be given a short period of time – typically 10-15 seconds – to decide whether to accept the rate or not.

At the branches and Call Centre, the real-time rates are applied to transactions for Tier 2 and Tier 3 transaction amounts. For details, please refer to section 2 below.
Real-time rates are available for selected currencies from Internet Banking. Please refer to section 3 below for details.

There is also a spread between the base rate and the buying or selling rate of a foreign currency exchange transaction. The range of the spread for a typical Japanese yen / US dollar transaction is 0.03 - 0.10 yen. However, in times of large market volatility, low transaction volume (i.e. low liquidity), or other abnormal market conditions, this spread may increase further. This represents normal practice in the interbank foreign exchange markets and while this spread is not a fee that the Bank charges, it is a cost to be borne by customers.

Note: for transactions where the neither the real-time nor Board Rates are available, e.g. transactions done on weekends, holidays, late night or early morning, the transaction will be executed after the Board Rate becomes available on the next business day (on the same day in the case of early morning).

2. Foreign Exchange Commissions

Transaction channel	Tier		Rate	Commission
Internet Banking	Please refer to the section 3 below		Board Rate	Tier 1 foreign exchange fee
Internet Banking	Please refer to the section 3 below		Real-time Rates	Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3 online foreign exchange fee
Branches / Call Centre	Transaction amount	Tier 1	Board Rate	Tier 1 foreign exchange fee
Branches / Call Centre	Transaction amount	Tier 2 & 3	Real-time Rates	Tier 2 / Tier 3 foreign exchange fee

For currencies where real-time rates are not available on Internet Banking, there will be cases where you can get a better foreign exchange rate at the branches or Call Centre. Specifically, these will be for currencies where real-time rates are available at the branches or Call Centre but not on Internet Banking and for transaction amounts that qualify for Tier 2 or 3 pricing."

For details on pricing, please click here.

3. Foreign Exchange Rates for Internet Banking

a) Real-time Rates

Real-time rates over Internet Banking are available for transactions that meet the following conditions:

Transactions to which Real-time Rates are available:
Currency	Transaction to and from JPY against USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD, CAD, CHF, HKD, SGD, CNY
Transaction Type	- FX exchange within your HSBC Premier Japan Account - FX exchange + transfer to another HSBC Premier Account in Japan
Transaction Amount	Between JPY 10,000 and JPY 100,000,000 Internet Banking daily transfer limits will be applied for transfers to accounts other than your own account. *JPY equivalent will be calculated by the rate we offer.
Available	From 6 AM Monday through 6 AM Saturday * Transactions at night from about 9 PM to midnight or on holidays that fall on a weekday will be booked with value date as of the following business day.

IMPORTANT NOTES

※	The Bank may at its discretion stop offering real-time rates without prior notice during periods of extremely high market volatility, abnormal market conditions, or other unforeseen circumstances. In such cases, the Board Rate will be offered.
※	Foreign currency to foreign currency exchange transactions – transactions not involving the Japanese yen, e.g. USD -> EUR will all be done at the Board Rate. If you want to take advantage of real-time rates (where available), first convert the foreign currency into Japanese yen and then convert the yen into the desired foreign currency. For example, to convert US dollars to euros, you'll need to convert the dollars into yen and then do a second transaction to convert the yen into euros.
※	When directing an international fund transfer in a currency which is different from the designated source of fund, or creating a time deposit directly from a different currency, the currency exchange transaction involved will be executed with the Board Rate. If you wish to take advantage of real-time rates (where available), you will need to execute the currency exchange first and then the transfer of funds or creation of time deposits as separate transactions.

b) Transactions with Board Rate

For transactions where a Real-time Rate is not available, the Board Rate will be offered, regardless of the transaction amount. After the currency cut-off time, the Board Rate from the following business day will be applied. For transactions with a future date, the Board Rate on the scheduled date will be applied and the transaction will not be executed until the Board Rate is fixed. You can refer to the Board Rate for Internet Banking transaction on Internet Banking.

4. Risks of Foreign Currency Transactions

When converting a foreign currency into another foreign currency, the foreign currency will be converted to JPY at TTB rate first and then to the other foreign currency at TTS rate and such TTB rate and TTS rate include respective foreign exchange fees.
For transactions involving Multi Currency Savings and foreign currency time deposits, please ensure to confirm the risks associated with foreign currency deposits. Click here for further details.