"Currency code" redirects here; not to be confused withCurrency symbol.
An airline ticket showing the price with ISO 4217 code "EUR" (bottom left) and not with eurocurrency sign "€"
ISO 4217 is a standard published by theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines alpha codes and numeric codes for the representation of currencies and provides information about the relationships between individual currencies and their minor units. This data is published in three tables:[1]
The ISO 4217 code list is used inbanking and business globally. In many countries, the ISO 4217 alpha codes for the more common currencies are so well known publicly that exchange rates published in newspapers or posted in banks use only these to delineate the currencies, instead of translated currency names or ambiguouscurrency symbols. ISO 4217 alpha codes are used on airline tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price.
In 1973, the ISO Technical Committee 68 decided to develop codes for the representation of currencies and funds for use in any application of trade, commerce or banking. At the 17th session (February 1978), the relatedUN/ECE Group of Experts agreed that the three-letter alphabetic codes for International Standard ISO 4217, "Codes for the representation of currencies and funds", would be suitable for use in international trade.[citation needed]
Over time, new currencies are created and old currencies are discontinued. Such changes usually originate from the formation of new countries, treaties between countries on shared currencies or monetary unions, orredenomination from an existing currency due to excessive inflation. As a result, the list of codes must be updated from time to time. The ISO 4217 maintenance agency is responsible for maintaining the list of codes.[3]
A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by amoney changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency. Note that the code for theSouth Korean won is displayed incorrectly; it should beKRW.
In the case of national currencies, the first two letters of the alpha code are the two letters of theISO 3166-1 alpha-2country code and the third is usually the initial of the currency's main unit.[4] SoJapan's currency code isJPY: "JP" for Japan and "Y" foryen. This eliminates the problem caused by the namesdollar,franc,peso, andpound being used in many countries, each having significantly differing values.
In some cases, the third letter of the alpha code is not the initial letter of a currency unit name. There may be a number of reasons for this:
It is considered important that the code of a completely new currency be highly mnemonic if possible. An example is the assignment of the codeEUR to the euro. ISO 4217 amendment 94,[5] which created this code, states "The code element 'EU' has been reserved by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency for use within ISO 4217 where 'R' has been appended to make an acceptable mnemonic code." Here the R comes from the third letter in the word "euro".
The currency in question is replacing another currency of the same name, due to revaluation. So that the two currencies have different codes, a different third letter must be chosen for the code of the new currency. In some cases, the third letter is the initial for "new" in that country's language, to distinguish it from an older currency that was revalued; the code sometimes outlasts the usage of the term "new" itself (for example, the code for theMexican peso isMXN, reflecting its 1993 revaluation). Another solution to a revalued currency having the same name as its predecessor is to choose a third letter which results in a 3-letter code with mnemonic significance. For example, theRussian ruble changed fromRUR toRUB following a revaluation, where the B comes from the third letter in the word "ruble".[citation needed]
In addition to codes for most active national currencies ISO 4217 provides codes for "supranational" currencies, procedural purposes, and several things which are "similar to" currencies:
Codes for theprecious metalsgold (XAU),silver (XAG),palladium (XPD), andplatinum (XPT) are formed by prefixing the element's chemical symbol with the letter "X". These "currency units" are defined as onetroy ounce of the specified metal.
The code XTS is reserved for use in testing.
The code XXX is used to denote a "transaction" involving no currency.
The use of the initial letter "X" for these purposes is facilitated by theISO 3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned.
The inclusion of the EU (denoting theEuropean Union) in theISO 3166-1 reserved codes list allows theeuro to be coded as EUR rather than assigned a code beginning with X, even though it is a supranational currency.
ISO 4217 also assigns a three-digit numeric code to each currency. This numeric code is usually the same as the numeric code assigned to the corresponding country byISO 3166-1. For example, USD (United States dollar) has numeric code 840 which is also the ISO 3166-1 code for "US" (United States).
The following is a list of active codes of official ISO 4217 currency names as of 12 May 2025[update]. In the standard the values are called "alphabetic code", "numeric code", "minor unit", and "entity".
According to UN/CEFACT recommendation 9, paragraphs 8–9 ECE/TRADE/203, 1996:[22]
8. In applications where monetary resources associated with a currency (i.e. funds) need not be specified and where a field identifier indicating currency is used, the first two (leftmost) characters are sufficient to identify a currency—example: US for United States dollars for general, unspecified purposes where a field identifier indicating currency is present. (A field identifier can be a preprinted field heading in an aligned document or a similarly-agreed application in electronic transmission of data.)
9. In applications where there is a need to distinguish between types of currencies, or where funds are required as in the banking environment, or where there is no field identifier, the third (rightmost) character of the alphabetic code is an indicator, preferably mnemonic, derived from the name of the major currency unit or fund—example: USD for general, unspecified purposes; USN for United States dollar next-day funds, and USS for funds which are immediately available for Federal Reserve transfer, withdrawal in cash or transfer in like funds (same-day funds). Since there is no need for such a distinction in international trade applications, the funds codes have not been included in the Annex to the present Recommendation.
A number of currencies had official ISO 4217 currency codes and currency names until their replacement by another currency. The table below shows the ISO currency codes of former currencies and their common names (which do not always match the ISO 4217 names). That table has been introduced end 1988 by ISO.[23]
The 2008 (7th) edition of ISO 4217 says the following about minor units of currency:
Requirements sometimes arise for values to be expressed in terms of minor units of currency. When this occurs, it is necessary to know the decimal relationship that exists between the currency concerned and its minor unit. This information has therefore been included in this International Standard and is shown in the column headed "Minor unit" in Tables A.1 and A.2; "0" means that there is no minor unit for that currency, whereas "1", "2" and "3" signify a ratio of 10:1, 100:1 and1000:1 respectively. The names of the minor units are not given.
Examples for the ratios of100:1 and1000:1 include the United States dollar and theBahraini dinar, for which the column headed "Minor unit" shows "2" and "3", respectively. As of 2021[update], two currencies have non-decimal ratios, theMauritanian ouguiya and theMalagasy ariary; in both cases the ratio is 5:1. For these, the "Minor unit" column shows the number "2". Some currencies, such as theBurundian franc, do not in practice have any minor currency unit at all. These show the number "0", as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value.[citation needed]
The ISO 4217 standard does not regulate either the spacing, prefixing or suffixing in usage of currency codes. Thestyle guide of theEuropean Union's Publication Office declares that, for texts issued by or through the Commission inEnglish,Irish,Latvian, andMaltese, the ISO 4217 code is to be followed by a "hard space" (non-breaking space) and the amount:[47]
TheUS dollar has two codes assigned: USD and USN ("US dollar next day"[definition needed]). The USS (same day) code is not in use any longer, and was removed from the list of active ISO 4217 codes in March 2014.
Despite having no presence or status in the standard,three letter acronyms that resemble ISO 4217 coding are sometimes used locally or commercially to representde facto currencies or currency instruments.
Active abbreviations resembling ISO 4217 currency codes
The Government of Barbados and Central Bank of Barbados sometimes use the abbreviation "BDS" rather than the official ISO 4217 "BBD". BDS conflicts with ISO 4217, because BD is reserved for Bangladesh.
The code CNH is used to represent the Renminbi in offshore trading, especially offshore trading involvingHong Kong. SeeOffshore Renminbi (CNH). The USD/CNY rate and the USD/CNH rate are, usually, different.[51]
NIS stands forNewIsraeliShekel, the currency that replaced thefirst Israeli shekel due to hyperinflation. NIS conflicts with ISO 4217, because NI stands for Nicaragua.
STG stands forSTerlinG, the official name of the United Kingdom's currency, of which thepound is the main unit. While not an ISO code, "STG" is nonetheless theCHAPSreal-time gross settlement andclearing code for sterling recognized bySWIFT. It is listed inISO 20022 as a registered external code used by SWIFT.[60] STG conflicts with ISO 4217, because ST stands for São Tomé and Príncipe.
RMB stands forRenMinBi, the official name of the Chinese currency, of which theyuan is the main unit. RMB conflicts with ISO 4217 because RM is reserved for Madagascar.
Minor units of currency (also known as currency subdivisions or currency subunits) are often used for pricing and tradingstocks and other assets, such as energy,[73] but are not assigned codes by ISO 4217. Two conventions for representing minor units are in widespread use:
Replacing the third letter of the ISO 4217 Code of the parent currency with an upper-case "X". Examples are GBX[73][74][75] for penny sterling, USX[74] for the US Cent, EUX[74][73] for the Euro Cent.
Replacing the third letter of the ISO 4217 Code of the parent currency with the first letter of the name of a minor unit, using lower-case. Examples are GBp[76][75] for Penny Sterling, USc[76] for the US Cent, and EUc[76] for the Euro Cent.
A third convention is similar to the second one but uses an upper-case letter, e.g. ZAC[77] for the South African Cent.
Cryptocurrencies havenot been assigned an ISO 4217 code.[78] However, some cryptocurrencies andcryptocurrency exchanges use a three-letter acronym that resemble an ISO 4217 code.
^abAdopted unilaterally, not an actual part of the eurozone.
^Jeon is defined as 1/100 won by the Bank of Korea Act, Article 47-2,[9] but it is not practically used and only used for exchange rates.
^abTheMalagasy ariary and theMauritanian ouguiya are technically divided into five subunits (the iraimbilanja and khoum respectively) the coins display "1/5" on their face and are referred to as a "fifth" (Khoum/cinquième); These are not used in practice, but when written out, a single significant digit is used. E.g. 1.2 UM.
^Added on 2005-06-01 with an effective date of 2006-01-01,[25] but moved to the historic index and replaced by AZN on 2005-10-13 due to not complying with the currency coding standardization rules.[26]
^The numeric code for the German Mark was originally 280: it was changed to 276 on 16 April 1999 to align with ISO 3166-1.[32]
^The Government of Barbados and the Central Bank often use theInternational vehicle registration code code "BDS" instead of the ISO 4217 code "BBD". For example, the Central Bank uses the code "BDS$" for listing past exchange rates on its website.[49]
^abNot compatible with ISO 4217, as currency codes beginning with MA are reserved to Morocco. However, formerly referred to in the list of historical currencies with a footnote stating that it is a "non ISO code".[63] Amended to MLF on 2007-06-18.[64]
^Croatia and Macedonia issued their own currencies before the 1992 dinar entered circulation. Bosnia and Herzegovina issued their own currency when the 1992 dinar entered circulation.
^"ISO 4217 – Currency Codes". International Organisation for Standardisation. 2015. Retrieved2022-06-27.The alphabetic code is based on another ISO standard, ISO 3166, which lists the codes for country names. The first two letters of the ISO 4217 three-letter code are the same as the code for the country name, and, where possible, the third letter corresponds to the first letter of the currency name.
^Tysoe, P J (1989)."ISO 4217 – Currency Codes Table 3"(PDF).SIX Group. ISO 4217 Maintenance agency secretariat. International Organisation for Standardisation. Retrieved2022-09-07.Telex on the new 'Table 3' of historic denominations of currencies, as issued with my letter of 14 December 1988.
^Efron, Arnoldo, ed. (2018). "Zimbabwe".MRI Bankers' Guide to Foreign Currency (90 ed.). Houston, Texas: Monetary Research Institute. p. 253.ISBN978-0962933974.
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