How this site's dollar figures are produced

The rate on this site is the Central Bank of Sri Lanka's indicative USD/LKR spot rate. The buy and sell figures marked as an average are the Central Bank's mean of the telegraphic-transfer quotes that licensed banks give at 9.30 a.m. One bank's board, People's Bank, is read from the bank's own page. A third source is used only to check that the central bank's page is alive.

An average and a quote are not the same

The headline rate is a weighted average of the previous business day's interbank spot deals, including the central bank's own interventions. It is a summary of where the market traded, not an offer to anyone. A bank's buy and sell quotes are prices at which that bank is prepared to deal with a customer; the average of the licensed banks' 9.30 a.m. telegraphic-transfer quotes is a summary of those offers, but each bank still sets its own board.

The distinction matters because a reader can act on a quote but not on an average. The indicative rate is the figure the news prints; it is the reference against which the spread is measured. The bank's board is the price a customer meets. This site shows both, and labels each row so the two are not mistaken for one another.

Where each rate is read and how a frozen board is caught

The indicative rate and the average of the banks' telegraphic-transfer quotes are read from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka's published page. People's Bank's telegraphic-transfer and currency-note boards are read from the bank's own published page, which carries its own timestamp. A board can freeze after an update fails, or a page can serve an old number; a reader comparing two sites would see a contradiction and not know which is stale.

This site refuses a reading if the rate leaves a plausible band, if it sits more than one and a half per cent from an independent rate, if a bank's buy is not below its sell or lies on the wrong side of the indicative rate, or if the newest rate is more than four days old. When a reading is refused, the previous one stays on the page, with its date shown.

A third source as a check, never a price

A foreign mid rate is read to confirm that the Central Bank's page is alive. It is not a source for the rupee; it is a canary. If the Central Bank's page freezes, the independent rate will move while the rupee figure does not, and the difference trips the one-and-a-half-per-cent band. The check is not shown as a price because it is not one: it has no Sri Lankan counterparty, no bank board, and no customer could deal at it.

Using a third source only as a check keeps the page honest without implying that a foreign feed is a better price for Sri Lankan dollars. The rupee floats, and no parallel street rate is published; the only published prices are the Central Bank's indicative rate and the banks' boards. A reader who wants a transaction price must look at a bank's board, not at a mid rate from abroad.

What this site refuses to print

No street or 'hundi' rate is shown because none is published. Commercial Bank, Bank of Ceylon and Hatton National Bank could not be read by this site and are not quoted; a single bank presented as the market would mislead a reader who thinks the board is the whole of the banks. No forecast is made: past rates are shown as the Central Bank published them, and the two-week table is a record, not a prediction.

A forecast would be a promise this site cannot keep. The rupee floats, and the rate moves on export earnings, remittances, import demand, central bank intervention and world markets. The next business day's rate is not knowable from the last two weeks. This site states what is published, labels what is an average and what is a quote, and leaves the prediction to those who are paid to be wrong.