BBS Bank Exchange Rate API: BWP Buy and Sell Rates as JSON

BBS Bank is a Botswana commercial bank that grew out of the Botswana Building Society. Its exchange-rates page lists telegraphic-transfer and cash buy and sell rates against the pula for the US dollar, euro, pound and rand. This guide shows how to read that board as JSON: what the rates mean, how they compare with the Bank of Botswana official rate and with other banks in Botswana, and the calls that return them.

What the BBS board shows

• 4 currencies against the Botswanan pula: EUR, GBP, USD and ZAR. Every value is BWP per 1 unit of the foreign currency.
• The telegraphic transfer (sell tt/tc, buy tt) pair. The pula moves on a crawling peg against a basket of the rand and the SDR currencies; banks print most currencies as foreign units per pula, and the gap between buying and selling is wide, often more than 10%. The rates here are converted to pula per unit. The Bank of Botswana official rate is shown next to each row.
• USD on 15 November 2026: BBS bought at 12.9032 and sold at 14.881 BWP, a spread of 14.24%. The Bank of Botswana official rate was 13.5685, so the bank's mid sat +2.38% from it.
• The bank's own timestamp. The page prints a last-updated stamp (2026-11-12 (value date 14/11/26) on the board above), returned as bank_updated_at next to our captured_at.
• Every day's board is kept permanently, from 12 November 2026. Read one past day with ?date=, or a range for one currency with the /history endpoint (paid plans).

Spreads across the board

On the 15 November 2026 board the tightest spreads were GBP (13.56%), EUR (13.93%), ZAR (14.13%) and the widest USD (14.24%), ZAR (14.13%), EUR (13.93%). Spread is (sell − buy) ÷ mid: what a round trip through the bank costs, before any fees. The API returns it on every row as spread_pct, so you can rank currencies or alert when a bank widens its board.

USD at BBS and other banks in Botswana

USD on the 5 boards AllRatesToday reads in Botswana, all captured on 15 November 2026 (the Bank of Botswana official rate was 13.5685):

BBS had the 3rd narrowest USD spread of the 5. One call to /api/v1/bank-rates/bw returns every board in the table at once.

Get the board (REST)

You need an API key; the free key works. The full board:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/bw/bbsbw" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

What comes back (the 15 November 2026 board, first three rows):

{
  "bank": "bbsbw",
  "name": "BBS Bank",
  "country": "bw",
  "quote_ccy": "BWP",
  "bank_updated_at": "2026-11-12 (value date 14/11/26)",
  "basis": "Telegraphic transfer (Sell TT/TC, Buy TT)",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-15T11:46:46.206Z",
  "rates": [
    {"ccy":"EUR","buy":14.30615165,"sell":16.44736842,"mid":15.37676,"spread_pct":13.925,"official":15.015015015015013,"vs_official_pct":2.409},
    {"ccy":"GBP","buy":17.0991,"sell":19.5859,"mid":18.3425,"spread_pct":13.558,"official":17.953321364452425,"vs_official_pct":2.168},
    {"ccy":"USD","buy":12.90322581,"sell":14.88095238,"mid":13.892089,"spread_pct":14.236,"official":13.568521031207599,"vs_official_pct":2.385},
    … 1 more currencies
  ],
  "disclaimer": "…",
  "attribution": { … }
}

One currency, with the row fields at the top level:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/bw/bbsbw?ccy=USD" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

{
  "bank": "bbsbw",
  "name": "BBS Bank",
  "country": "bw",
  "quote_ccy": "BWP",
  "bank_updated_at": "2026-11-12 (value date 14/11/26)",
  "basis": "Telegraphic transfer (Sell TT/TC, Buy TT)",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-15T11:46:46.206Z",
  "ccy": "USD",
  "buy": 12.90322581,
  "sell": 14.88095238,
  "mid": 13.892089,
  "spread_pct": 14.236,
  "official": 13.568521031207599,
  "vs_official_pct": 2.385,
  "disclaimer": "Retail buy/sell rates as displayed on each bank’s own website at capture time, quoted as home currency per 1 unit of foreign currency. Indicative only: banks change these through the day, apply them at the counter or in-app, and they are not official or reference rates. For the rate a regulation names, use the central-bank endpoints.",
  "attribution": {
    "source": "Board rates published by BBS Bank on its own website, collected by AllRatesToday",
    "bank_url": "https://www.bbs.co.bw/exchange-rates",
    "url": "https://allratestoday.com/bank-exchange-rate-api/bw/bbsbw/",
    "terms": "Public pages that show the rates need a visible link to allratestoday.com"
  }
}

The board as it stood on a past day:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/bw/bbsbw?date=2026-11-12" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

One currency over a date range, one row per day (paid plans; add &format=csv, xml or xlsx for a file):

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/bw/bbsbw/history?ccy=USD&from=2026-11-12&to=2026-11-15" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

JavaScript

npm install @allratestoday/sdk

import { AllRatesToday } from '@allratestoday/sdk';

const client = new AllRatesToday({ apiKey: 'art_live_your_key' });

// BBS Bank's USD row
const r = await client.bankRates('bw', { bank: 'bbsbw', ccy: 'USD' });
console.log(`BBS buys USD at ${r.buy}, sells at ${r.sell} BWP`);

// The board as it stood on a past day
const past = await client.bankRates('bw', { bank: 'bbsbw', date: '2026-11-12' });
console.log(past.snapshot_date, past.rates.length);

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/bw/bbsbw",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer art_live_your_key"},
    timeout=10,
)
r.raise_for_status()
for row in r.json()["rates"]:
    print(row["ccy"], row["buy"], row["sell"], row["spread_pct"])

Board rate or official rate?

The Bank of Botswana rate is the one tax, accounting and customs rules in Botswana name; nobody transacts at it. BBS's board is the price a customer actually gets. The API puts both on every row: official is the central bank's rate for the same currency and vs_official_pct is how far the bank's mid sits from it. Use the board to show customers a real price, compare banks for a remittance, or keep a dated record of what the bank quoted; use the Bank of Botswana endpoint when a rule asks for the official rate.

FAQ

Where do the BBS Bank rates come from?

From the bank's own public rates page (https://www.bbs.co.bw/exchange-rates), read hourly. AllRatesToday does not change the numbers: each row is the buy and sell price BBS shows, with the mid, the spread and the Bank of Botswana rate added.

Are these the official BWP exchange rates?

No. They are BBS's retail prices for customers. The official rate in Botswana is the Bank of Botswana rate, which the API returns as official on each row where the central bank has one, and in full from the central-bank endpoint.

How often is the BBS board updated?

AllRatesToday reads the page every hour. The bank's own last-updated stamp is returned as bank_updated_at, so you can tell a fresh read of an unchanged board from a new board.

Can I get BBS rates for a past date?

Yes, from 12 November 2026 onward; every day's board is kept permanently. Add ?date=YYYY-MM-DD for one day: the response is the board captured that day, or the nearest earlier day within five days, with date_requested and snapshot_date added. For a range, /history?ccy=USD&from=…&to=… returns one row per day as JSON, CSV, XML or XLSX on paid plans.

Do I need an API key?

Yes. Commercial bank boards need an API key; any plan works, the free key included, and each call counts against the plan. Public pages or widgets that show the rates need a visible link to allratestoday.com.