Mercantile Bank Exchange Rate API: ILS Buy and Sell Rates as JSON

Mercantile Bank is a subsidiary of Israel Discount Bank serving households and small businesses. It publishes its own transfer and banknote rates on the Discount group platform. This guide shows how to read that board as JSON: what the rates mean, how they compare with the Bank of Israel official rate and with other banks in Israel, and the calls that return them.

What the Mercantile board shows

• 23 currencies against the Israeli new shekel: AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, CNY, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, INR, JOD, JPY, MXN, NOK, NZD, PLN, RUB, SEK, SGD, TRY, USD and ZAR. Every value is ILS per 1 unit of the foreign currency.
• The transfers and cheques pair. Israeli banks quote a buy and sell for cheques and transfers and a wider pair for cash notes, set around the Bank of Israel representative rate published each afternoon. The rates here are the cheques-and-transfers pair, the one a transfer into or out of an account is converted at. The Bank of Israel official rate is shown next to each row.
• USD on 15 November 2026: Mercantile bought at 3.1696 and sold at 3.2341 ILS, a spread of 2.01%. The Bank of Israel official rate was 3.199, so the bank's mid sat +0.09% from it.
• The bank's own timestamp. The page prints a last-updated stamp (20261113 on the board above), returned as bank_updated_at next to our captured_at.
• Every day's board is kept permanently, from 13 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 RUB (1.80%), GBP (1.81%), CHF (1.81%) and the widest JOD (9.01%), CNY (4.73%), TRY (2.20%). 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 Mercantile and other banks in Israel

USD on the 7 boards AllRatesToday reads in Israel, all captured on 15 November 2026 (the Bank of Israel official rate was 3.199):

Mercantile had the 4th narrowest USD spread of the 7. One call to /api/v1/bank-rates/il 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/il/mercantile" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

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

{
  "bank": "mercantile",
  "name": "Mercantile Bank",
  "country": "il",
  "quote_ccy": "ILS",
  "bank_updated_at": "20261113",
  "basis": "Transfers and cheques",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-15T11:22:33.729Z",
  "rates": [
    {"ccy":"AUD","buy":2.1541,"sell":2.1984,"mid":2.17625,"spread_pct":2.036,"official":2.1749,"vs_official_pct":0.062},
    {"ccy":"BRL","buy":0.5623,"sell":0.5738,"mid":0.56805,"spread_pct":2.024,"official":null,"vs_official_pct":null},
    {"ccy":"CAD","buy":2.2225,"sell":2.2677,"mid":2.2451,"spread_pct":2.013,"official":2.2439,"vs_official_pct":0.053},
    … 20 more currencies
  ],
  "disclaimer": "…",
  "attribution": { … }
}

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

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

{
  "bank": "mercantile",
  "name": "Mercantile Bank",
  "country": "il",
  "quote_ccy": "ILS",
  "bank_updated_at": "20261113",
  "basis": "Transfers and cheques",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-15T11:22:33.729Z",
  "ccy": "USD",
  "buy": 3.1696,
  "sell": 3.2341,
  "mid": 3.20185,
  "spread_pct": 2.014,
  "official": 3.199,
  "vs_official_pct": 0.089,
  "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 Mercantile Bank on its own website, collected by AllRatesToday",
    "bank_url": "https://www.mercantile.co.il/",
    "url": "https://allratestoday.com/bank-exchange-rate-api/il/mercantile/",
    "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/il/mercantile?date=2026-11-13" \
  -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/il/mercantile/history?ccy=USD&from=2026-11-13&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' });

// Mercantile Bank's USD row
const r = await client.bankRates('il', { bank: 'mercantile', ccy: 'USD' });
console.log(`Mercantile buys USD at ${r.buy}, sells at ${r.sell} ILS`);

// The board as it stood on a past day
const past = await client.bankRates('il', { bank: 'mercantile', date: '2026-11-13' });
console.log(past.snapshot_date, past.rates.length);

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/il/mercantile",
    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 Israel rate is the one tax, accounting and customs rules in Israel name; nobody transacts at it. Mercantile'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 Israel endpoint when a rule asks for the official rate.

FAQ

Where do the Mercantile Bank rates come from?

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

Are these the official ILS exchange rates?

No. They are Mercantile's retail prices for customers. The official rate in Israel is the Bank of Israel 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 Mercantile 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 Mercantile rates for a past date?

Yes, from 13 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.