Understand forex: A list of different countries and their currencies

Foreign exchange markets are largest, most liquid financial markets in the world. Their exchange rates have a causative effect on the economies of the world.

Why are foreign exchange and foreign exchange services so important? At the very least, they help transfer our currency into international currency, and vice versa. However, forex has the following important key functions:

It facilitates international trade. Foreign exchange markets and services exist primarily to facilitate the transfer of goods and services among international markets. With reliable foreign exchange service channels in place, the transfer of payments can be effected seamlessly and correctly. The import and export channels depend primarily on foreign exchange to function smoothly.

It promotes the growth of global investment. Foreign exchange supports investments by offering diversified benefits to those trading in international currencies when buying or selling assets and other securities abroad. Besides, it helps companies and investors gain access into international markets, thus creating a spirit of global economic growth.

The Internet makes forex trading easier. The normal foreign currency exchange platform entails a network that links buyers and sellers. With the proliferation of the Internet, foreign currencies can be easily traded online. Identifying newer markets also becomes easier.

Forex rates can shake Governments. Any fluctuations on the global stage – for example, the recent Brexit campaign – has a ripple effect on global foreign exchange currencies. This effect may shake the tallest establishments or the man on the street, because they determine the prices of all commodities that we consume and the rate at which our economies make money. Thus, it is important to know the forex rates on every business day, whether you are travelling abroad or are a company dealing with international exports.

Setting forex benchmarks with IDFC Bank

IDFC Bank deals with the foreign currency exchange of the following countries:

                                   BILLS                       TELEPHONIC TRANSFER

Currency pairing	Bank buys	Bank sells	Bank buys	Bank sells
AED-INR	17.33	18.87	17.38	18.83
AUD-INR	49.74	52.17	49.87	52.04
CHF-INR	66.90	70.21	67.08	70.04
EUR-INR	73.21	76.29	73.40	76.11
GBP-INR	84.74	87.90	84.95	87.68
HKD-INR	8.37	8.78	8.39	8.75
JPY-INR	0.6438	0.6752	0.6454	0.6375
NZD-INR	47.32	49.62	47.45	49.50
SEK-INR	7.38	8.20	7.40	8.18
SGD-INR	47.91	49.95	48.03	49.83
USD-INR	65.45	67.52	65.62	67.35

Has mobile banking entirely replaced physical banks?

Not yet, but the day will soon come when the bank will only be an entity on the mobile phone.

The proliferation of mobile phones in our country has been astounding, to say the least. Touted as being an ‘expensive’ technology that only the rich could afford when mobile phones were launched in India in the 1990s, today, everybody sports mobile phones. Besides, a hitherto unconsidered demographic – daily wage workers, rural populations and slum dwellers – is a keen user of mobile phones.

The entry of affordable smartphones in the Indian market caused a seismic shift in thinking for service providers and industries. Where there are mobile phones, there will be mobile phone users, right? And where there are mobile phone users, they are going to demand mobile-only services. Hence, banks quickly devised mobile banking platforms that helped users conduct all their transactions using only their mobile phones.

Mobile banking apps today

All prominent Indian banks have developed some really good mobile banking apps for their customers. These apps provide a variety of uses: from paying bills to transferring money, and from opening bank accounts to recharging phone and DTH. Many others also accept payments and seamlessly transfer money between mobile phones. 

The question is: if the bank is available on the phone, are physical bank branches needed?

Will mobile apps replace physical banks?

While mobile banking platforms are quite robust in countries like the US and UK, the phenomenon is relatively new in India. Abroad, mobile banking platforms even allow cheque deposits via the phone; the user simply takes a photograph of the cheque and uploads it to the app. The bank then starts processing the payment. However, this functionality – and others like it – are not yet present in India. Thus, the physical bank branch is still needed for such tasks as depositing cheques and submitting account opening forms.

However, we are slowly moving towards this state of affairs. Some mobile banking apps allow fixed and recurring deposit account opening. Some others are set to allow zero balance savings account opening. Current apps comprise such functionalities as NEFT/IMPS money transfers, account statement access, and even setting preferred tasks on the home screen. Banks are also providing banking apps in regional languages – thus including the rural hinterlands as well.

Can the EasyPOS system work on my Apple MacBook?

Unlike most other POS systems, EasyPOS is designed to work well with iOS and Mac, thus increasing its efficiency across all platforms.

Apple’s Mac OS and Mac OS X are two excellent operating systems for its Mac books and desktops computers. They offer high functionality for graphics and sound editing, and also provide a host of useful applications for education and new media. Anyone using the Mac OS is hard pressed to find a better operating system anywhere else.

This poses a problem in the world of POS (Point Of Sale) software for retail businesses: most POS systems today are designed for Android and Windows OS! Many of the most popular POS software run well on Windows and Android, but not on Mac. Hence, retail businesses wishing to stick to Mac for POS find very limited options.

But this is not the case with EasyPOS – it is one of the few POS systems in India to run an excellent Mac POS software for Apple users.

Why choose Mac POS software

Though Mac OS has very few bugs and can run for longer periods of time without requiring an upgrade, not many systems are allied with it yet. This is another reason why retail businesses are hesitant to use Mac POS software, because they are often limited by lack of associated accounting and payment software that can integrate with it. If the POS software has limited functionality with other systems, it will impede business operations.

However, EasyPOS circumvents this problem with an easy Android and Mac POS software. All its major modalities, from selling to daily reporting, are available for Mac and these are seamlessly merged with associated systems for a clear interface. Hence, dedicated Apple users need not switch from their preferred Mac OS to Windows or Android platforms.

Besides, as is expected with the Mac OS, the EasyPOS Mac POS software is easy to use, has very few glitches and offers complete flexibility of use with density of operation. While other POS software users for Mac must invest more time and money in training personnel in using the Mac platform, the EasyPOS system is installed quickly and is quite self-explanatory. EasyPOS users for Mac also find that technical repairs and reconfiguration are completely hassle-free, because EasyPOS does it themselves and does not ask clients to conduct repairs themselves.

Another advantage of the Mac POS software is that there is very little chance of viruses attacking the system – and if they do, EasyPOS is on hand 24/7 to fix the problem the moment it occurs.