1. What is Total Effective Value (VET)?
Total Effective Value (in Portuguese: Valor Efetivo Total - VET) is the total amount of BRL paid or received per unit of foreign currency on an exchange transaction (e.g. BRL 3.00 per USD). The VET considers exchange rate, taxes (Tax on Credit, Exchange Transactions, Insurance and Securities - IOF) and fees that may be charged. The VET allows customers to compare the prices available in the market for buying and selling foreign currencies.
2. When should VET be informed to customers?
Institutions authorized to trade in foreign exchange market must inform VET to customers BEFORE concluding the transaction.
The rule applies to all transactions of prompt settlement (up to two workdays) and value up to the equivalent of USD 100,000.00 (one hundred thousand USD). VET must also be included in exchange contracts or in transaction receipts handed to customers.
3. How is the VET from a transaction calculated?
VET expresses the amount of BRL delivered or received per unit of foreign currency, including exchange rate, taxes and fees that may be charged.
The following examples illustrate the calculation method:
Example 1: Customer wishes to BUY one thousand USD for international travel.
VET is calculated as follows:
| VET = | ((Amount for Purchase * Exchange Rate) + Tax + Fee) |
| (Amount for purchase) |
| VET = | ((1,000.00 * 3.00) + 33.00 + 50.00) |
| 1,000.00 |
Example 2: Customer wishes to SELL one thousand USD of a transfer received from abroad.
VET is calculated as follows:
| VET = | ((Amount for sale * Exchange Rate) - Tax - Fee) |
| (Amount for sale) |
| VET = | ((1,000.00 * 3.00) - 11.40 - 50.00) |
| 1,000.00 |
4. How useful is the VET Ranking?
The VET Ranking eases comparability of prices offered by authorized institutions because it encompasses in a single value: exchange rate, taxes and fees that may be charged.
For example, based on information about a transaction, the citizen is able to verify which institutions have offered, for similar transactions, the best VET on previous months. Costumers therefore can choose the best business option: an attractive exchange rate with charging fee or an exchange rate slightly less attractive without charging fee.
5. How does the VET Ranking site works?
The VET Ranking classifies the institutions according to the mean VET used on similar transactions.
When you select, as an answer to question “1. What do I want?", the option "Buy" or "Send", the institutions displayed at the top of the list have charged the lowest mean VET to customers. In other words, these are the institutions where, on average, customers had to pay less to acquire some amount of foreign currency.
When you select the option "Sell" or "Receive", the institutions displayed at the top are those who offered the highest mean VET to customers. In other words, these are the institutions where, on average, customers received more BRL to sell their foreign currency.
6. How is the VET Ranking calculated?
The VET Ranking presents every month a list of authorized institutions ranked by the mean VET of their foreign exchange operations. The mean is calculated considering the transactions with the same features.
The calculation of the mean VET relies on information about foreign exchange operations that each authorized institution sends to Banco Central do Brasil. The average is weighted by foreign currency amount of such transactions.
For example, imagine two exchange transactions made by an institution in a given month:
Transaction 1, contracted in the 1st week of a month:
Transaction 2, contracted in the 3rd week of a month:
| VET average = | ((VET1 * VUSD1) + (VET2 * VUSD2)) |
| ((VUSD1 + VUSD2)) |
| VET average = | ((3.00 * 2,000.00) + (3.10 * 1,050.00)) |
| ((2,000.00 + 1,050.00)) |
7. Are all foreign exchange operations of one institution included on the mean VET calculation?
No. The calculation of the mean VET includes only transactions with similar features. The following table shows the features used for filtering data:
International Travel
|
Personal Transfers
|
The feature “Transaction amount” selects transactions contained in the same value range, as the following list displays. The amount informed by the customer, or an equivalent amount in USD, if appropriate, is assigned to the respective range in order to obtain corresponding mean VET.
International Travels and Personal Transfers – amount ranges:
Therefore, the mean VET of an institution, as the VET Ranking displays, does not represent the average for all the transactions from that institution on that month, it refers to the mean value charged in similar operations with values in the selected range. Moreover, the Ranking will display only institutions that fulfilled at least five transactions with the same features consulted by the citizen.
8. An institution is offering today a different VET from that published in the ranking. Is there anything wrong?
No. The VET presented at the ranking is an average of transactions registered in Banco Central do Brasil by the institutions in previous months and serves only as an indicator of the institutions that have practiced most interesting average values for their customers in recent months. In other words, the Ranking does not show the VET practiced on the current day or week.
9. What are Personal Transfers?
Internationally known as “Remittances”, these operations consist of transfers of funds among natural persons without any goods or services retribution. The VET Ranking includes remittances made by natural persons resident in Brazil to natural persons resident abroad or vice-versa.
You may consult the following regulations: