Sri Lanka exchange rates explained

There is no single “USD to LKR rate”. The Central Bank publishes a reference rate, and each commercial bank publishes several rates of its own depending on what the customer is doing. This page explains the difference, so a number on this site can be read for what it actually is.

Reference rates and bank rates are different things

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka publishes indicative exchange rates. They describe the market and are used as a benchmark. A commercial bank publishes the rates it will actually deal at, and those include the margin the bank earns on the transaction.

The difference matters most when a rate is used to work out an amount. Converting a sum at the Central Bank's indicative rate will not match what a bank credits or debits, because the bank applies its own buying or selling rate for the specific instrument involved.

Buying and selling rates, from the bank's side

A bank buys foreign currency from you at its buying rate, and sells it to you at its selling rate. The selling rate is higher: the gap between them is the spread, and it is where the bank's margin sits.

So the direction of your transaction decides which number applies. Receiving money from abroad and converting it into rupees uses the bank's buying rate. Sending money abroad, or buying foreign currency for a trip, uses the selling rate.

The same bank publishes several rates for the same currency

Which rate applies depends on the instrument. A telegraphic transfer, a demand draft, a traveller's cheque and physical currency notes are all handled differently, so banks quote them separately. Notes usually attract the widest spread, because the bank carries the cost of shipping and holding cash.

This site therefore keeps every instrument separate. Rates are labelled with the instrument name the source itself uses, and two instruments are never merged into one number.

Instrument labels used here

Each label maps to the wording the collecting source publishes.

Label on this site	What it means	Sides
CBSL indicativeReference	Daily indicative exchange rate published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. A reference rate, not a dealable rate.	mid
CBSL indicative spotReference	Indicative USD/LKR spot exchange rate published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.	mid
CBSL average TTReference	Average telegraphic transfer buying and selling rate quoted at 9.30 a.m. by selected licensed commercial banks in Colombo, published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.	buying, selling
Mid-marketReference	International mid-market reference rate, midway between the interbank bid and offer. Not available from any Sri Lankan bank.	mid
Telegraphic transfer	Rate applied to a telegraphic transfer: money sent electronically between banks.	buying, selling
Demand draft	Rate applied to a demand draft or a traveller's cheque drawn on the bank.	buying, selling
Demand draft / telegraphic transfer	A single combined selling rate the bank applies to both demand drafts and telegraphic transfers.	selling
Cheque	Rate applied to a foreign currency cheque presented to the bank.	buying, selling
Cash / currency notes	Rate applied to physical foreign currency notes and coins handled over the counter.	buying, selling
O/D buying (encashment)	Buying rate for the encashment of drafts, traveller's cheques and other instruments. Published by the source with this wording.	buying
OVC buying	A single buying rate published in the source's currency-rate feed. The source does not document what OVC stands for, so this is labelled exactly as published and is never used as a headline rate.	buying
Import bill	Selling rate applied when the bank settles an importer's bill in foreign currency.	selling

Where the numbers on this site come from

Every rate is collected from the organisation that publishes it, at a fixed interval, and stored with the time the source says it applies from and the time it was retrieved. Rates are never taken from a third-party aggregator, and one source's rate is never used to fill a gap left by another.

Source	Type	How it is read	Interval
Bank of Ceylon	Commercial bank	Server-rendered HTML table	60 min
Central Bank of Sri Lanka	Central bank	Official lookup form (server-rendered HTML)	60 min
Commercial Bank of Ceylon	Commercial bank	Public JSON endpoint	60 min
DFCC Bank	Commercial bank	Server-rendered HTML table	60 min
HNB	Commercial bank	Public JSON endpoint	60 min
Nations Trust Bank	Commercial bank	Server-rendered HTML table	60 min
NDB Bank	Commercial bank	Server-rendered HTML table	60 min
People's Bank	Commercial bank	Server-rendered HTML table	60 min
Sampath Bank	Commercial bank	Public JSON endpoint	60 min
Seylan Bank	Commercial bank	Server-rendered HTML table	60 min

How to read a rate on this site

Source. The organisation that published the rate. A link opens the page the number came from.
Instrument. What the rate applies to: a telegraphic transfer, a draft, notes, and so on.
Source updated. When the publisher says the rate takes effect. Some sources publish only a date.
Retrieved. When this site read the value. If a source stops responding, the site shows how old its last value is rather than inventing a new one.
Change. Always measured against the same series, over a stated period. A dash means there is not yet enough history, and nothing is estimated to fill it.

What this site does not do

It does not forecast rates or give investment advice.
It does not rank banks or call one rate the best. Which rate is best depends on your transaction.
It does not combine sources into a single headline number, and it does not substitute one source for another.
It does not show a value it could not verify. When data is doubtful, the number is withheld and the reason is recorded.

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