When a Balance is held as Stocks, it’s invested in the iShares World Equity index fund which trades in Euros (EUR) - this means units of the fund are always bought and sold in EUR.
You can switch a Balance or Jar held in any currency to Stocks. This means a conversion will apply when you buy or sell units if your balance is not held in the trading currency.
If your Balance or Jar is held in any other currency, it’s converted to or from EUR whenever you buy or sell units - for example by topping up or spending from your account.
You won’t pay a conversion fee for this conversion and we’ll always use the mid-market rate. You can see the exchange rate used for each transaction on your statement.
Fees I pay when I hold my money as Stocks.
How does the exchange rate impact my investment?
The value of your holding is always shown in your Balance or Jar currency and the performance is determined by how well the underlying assets in the fund have performed.
If your Balance or Jar isn’t held as EUR, its valuation and earnings figures will also be affected by the exchange rate at any given point in time. So although the performance of your underlying investments will be the same across your Balances and Jars, exchange rates may affect:
the relative value in different currencies
gains and losses
the performance of your investment compared to the performance of the fund
The impact of exchange rates is most prominent on currencies that tend to fluctuate a lot against the Euro.
Is my balance also being converted to USD?
The Key Investor Information Document mentions the fund’s base currency is US Dollar (USD). But don’t worry, the Fund Base Currency simply refers to the currency that a fund reports in and it does not impact the performance of your investment or the returns.
The only conversion that applies is when you buy or sell units if your balance is not held in the trading currency (Euro - EUR), which we don’t charge any conversion fees.