Settling cash in a different currency

  • Published on Apr 9, 2026
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When you book a transaction you set or calculate a total consideration amount in settlement currency.

When you load a settlement instruction (SI) for a cash movement generated by that transaction you can choose to accept an amount in a different currency, in lieu of the original amount and currency.

For example, imagine we have a standard Buy transaction for 100 units of BP @ £5 per share with a total consideration of £500. On the trade date, the temporary cash commitment is a CCY_GBP holding with a cost of -£500:

To settle the cash in a different currency, either:

  • Specify a new currency and two amounts, the new and the original, directly on the SI.

  • Specify a currency and the new amount on the SI and ask LUSID to look up a FX rate to calculate the original amount.

Note if you do both, direct specification on the SI is preferred.

Specifying both amounts directly on the settlement instruction

Call the UpsertSettlementInstructions API and, for a SI with a settlementCategory of CashSettlement or DeferredCashReceipt:

  • In the instrumentIdentifiers object, specify the LUID of the new currency (in this case USD).

  • In the units field, specify the amount to accept in the new currency (in this case -630).

  • In the settlementInLieu object, specify the originalSettlementCurrency (in this case GBP) and original amount (-500):

curl -X POST "https://<your-domain>.lusid.com/api/api/transactionportfolios/Equities/UK-Growth/settlementinstructions"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-API-access-token>"
  -H "Content-Type: application/json-patch+json"
  -d '[
  {
    "settlementInstructionId": "Settle-Txn01-10-Sep-2025",
    "transactionId": "Txn01",
    "settlementCategory": "CashSettlement",
    "instrumentIdentifiers": {"Instrument/default/LusidInstrumentId": "CCY_USD"},
    "actualSettlementDate": "2025-09-10T00:00:00.0000000+00:00",
    "units": -630,
    "settlementInLieu": {
      "originalSettlementCurrency": "GBP",
      "amount": -500
    }
  }
]'

Follow the instructions for creating a settlement instruction and, in the Create cash settlement dialog:

  1. From the Settlement currency dropdown, choose the new currency (in this case USD, in yellow).

  2. In the Amount to settle field, specify the amount to accept in the new currency, in this case -630 (in green). Note this field still shows the original currency (in this case GBP), but this should change soon.

  3. In the In lieu amount field, specify the original amount to settle, in this case -500 (in red).

In our example, accepting USD instead of GBP changes the now-settled cash balance to a CCY_USD holding with a cost of -$630:

Asking LUSID to look up a FX rate to calculate the original amount

You must first:

  1. Create a recipe with a market data rule for the currency pair, for example USD/GBP.

  2. Register this recipe with the portfolio.

  3. Load a FX rate valid for the actual settlement date into the Quote Store.

See how to perform these steps.

You must then configure the portfolio to enable look up for cash, deferred cash, or both. See below.

To configure an existing portfolio, call the PatchPortfolioDetails API and re-specify the entire settlementConfiguration object to include calculateInLieuSettlementAmount set to true, for example:

curl -X POST "https://<your-domain>.lusid.com/api/api/transactionportfolios/Equities/UK-Growth/details"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-API-access-token>"
  -H "Content-Type: application/json-patch+json"
  -d '[
  {
    "path": "/settlementConfiguration",
    "op": "add",
    "value": {
      "stockSettlement": {"method": "Automatic"},
      "cashSettlement": {
        "method": "Instructed",
        "calculateInLieuSettlementAmount": true
      },
      "deferredCashReceipt": {"method": "Instructed"}
    },
  }
]'

Navigate to the Data Management > Portfolios dashboard, locate the portfolio to edit and, on the Details tab, enable In lieu settlement amount for cash and/or deferred cash:

This time, do not specify the original amount when creating a settlement instruction:

Call the UpsertSettlementInstructions API and, for a SI with a settlementCategory of CashSettlement or DeferredCashReceipt:

  • In the instrumentIdentifiers object, specify the LUID of the new currency (in this case USD).

  • In the units field, specify the amount to accept in the new currency (in this case -630).

  • In the settlementInLieu object, specify the originalSettlementCurrency (in this case GBP) but omit the amount field:

curl -X POST "https://<your-domain>.lusid.com/api/api/transactionportfolios/Equities/UK-Growth/settlementinstructions"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-API-access-token>"
  -H "Content-Type: application/json-patch+json"
  -d '[
  {
    "settlementInstructionId": "Settle-Txn01-10-Sep-2025",
    "transactionId": "Txn01",
    "settlementCategory": "CashSettlement",
    "instrumentIdentifiers": {"Instrument/default/LusidInstrumentId": "CCY_USD"},
    "actualSettlementDate": "2025-09-10T00:00:00.0000000+00:00",
    "units": -630,
    "settlementInLieu": {
      "originalSettlementCurrency": "GBP"
    }
  }
]'

Follow the instructions for creating a settlement instruction and, in the Create cash settlement dialog:

  1. From the Settlement currency dropdown, choose the new currency (in this case USD, in yellow).

  2. In the Amount to settle field, specify the amount to accept in the new currency, in this case -630 (in green). Note the field still shows the original currency (in this case GBP), but this should change soon.

  3. Leave the In lieu amount field empty.

In our example, accepting $630 and loading a USD/GBP rate for 10 September 2005 of 0.75 causes LUSID to:

  • Create a settled CCY_USD cash balance holding with a cost of -$630.

  • Calculate that 630 × 0.75 = 472.50 and so retain an unsettled CCY_GBP cash commitment holding for the remainder outstanding of -500 + 472.50 = -£27.50:

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