ISO 4217 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines alpha codes and numeric codes for the representation of currencies, and provides information about the relationships between currencies and their minor units. This data is published in three tables: Table A.1 – Current currency & funds code list Table A.2 – Current funds codes Table A.3 – List of codes for historic denominations of currencies & funds
The first edition of ISO 4217 was published in 1978. The tables, history and ongoing discussion are maintained by SIX Group on behalf of ISO and the Swiss Association for Standardization (SNV).
The ISO 4217 code list is used in banking 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 ambiguous currency symbols. ISO 4217 alpha codes are used on airline tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price.
History In 1973, ISO/TC 68 commenced development of a code for representing currencies, with this resulting standard being encouraged for use in international trade per UNECE Recommendation 9. The Recommendation uses ISO 3166 country codes in its currency table, and notes that these codes correspond to the three-letter ISO 4217 codes where possible.UNECE. (1996, December 31). Recommendation 9: Alphabetical code for the representation of currencies. (ECE/TRADE/203). United Nations. https://unece.org/trade/documents/alphabetical-code-representation-currencies
Due to the volatility of global currencies - such as in the event of redenomination or country formation - the standard is actively maintained and amended by a delegated authority of the SNV, with the most recent edition being ISO 4217:2015.
Types of codes
National currencies In the case of national currencies, the first two letters of the alpha code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code and the third is usually the initial of the currency's main unit. So Japan's currency code is : "JP" for Japan and "Y" for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the names dollar, franc, peso, and pound 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 code to the euro. ISO 4217 amendment 94, 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 (or similar) 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 the Mexican peso is , 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, the Russian ruble changed from to following a revaluation, where the B comes from the third letter in the word "ruble".
X currencies (funds, precious metals, supranationals, other) 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 the precious metals gold (XAU), silver (XAG), palladium (XPD), and platinum (XPT) are formed by prefixing the element's chemical symbol with the letter "X". These "currency units" are defined as one troy 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. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, e.g., XDR is the symbol for special drawing right issued by the International Monetary Fund. The codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC, and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit (ECU), had the code XEU.
The use of the initial letter "X" for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO 3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned.
The inclusion of the EU (denoting the European Union) in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list allows the euro to be coded as EUR rather than assigned a code beginning with X, even though it is a supranational currency.
Numeric codes 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 by ISO 3166-1. For example, USD (United States dollar) has numeric code which is also the ISO 3166-1 code for the United States.
List of ISO 4217 currency codes Active codes (list one) The following is a list of active codes of official ISO 4217 currency names . In the standard the values are called "alphabetic code", "numeric code", "minor unit", and "entity". + Active ISO 4217 currency codes Code Num Currency AED 784 2 United Arab Emirates dirham AFN 971 2Afghan afghani ALL 008 2Albanian lek AMD 051 2Armenian dram AOA 973 2Angolan kwanza ARS 032 2Argentine peso AUD 036 2Australian dollar , (CX), (CC), (HM), (KI), (NR), (NF), (TV) AWG 533 2Aruban florin AZN 944 2Azerbaijani manat BAM 977 2Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark BBD 052 2Barbados dollar BDT 050 2Bangladeshi taka BHD 048 3Bahraini dinar BIF 108 0 Burundian franc BMD 060 2Bermudian dollar (pegged to USD 1:1) BND 096 2Brunei dollar BOB 068 2Boliviano BOV 984 2 Bolivian Mvdol (funds code) BRL 986 2Brazilian real BSD 044 2Bahamian dollar (pegged to USD 1:1) BTN 064 2Bhutanese ngultrum BWP 072 2Botswana pula BYN 933 2Belarusian ruble BZD 084 2Belize dollar CAD 124 2Canadian dollar CDF 976 2Congolese franc CHE 947 2WIR euro (complementary currency) CHF 756 2Swiss franc , (LI) CHW 948 2WIR franc (complementary currency) CLF 990 4 Unidad de Fomento (funds code) CLP 152 0 Chilean peso CNY 156 2Renminbi COP 170 2Colombian peso COU 970 2 CRC 188 2Costa Rican colon CUP 192 2Cuban peso CVE 132 2Cape Verdean escudo CZK 203 2Czech koruna DJF 262 0 Djiboutian franc DKK 208 2Danish krone , (FO), (GL) DOP 214 2Dominican peso DZD 012 2Algerian dinar EGP 818 2Egyptian pound ERN 232 2Eritrean nakfa ETB 230 2Ethiopian birr EUR 978 2Euro Eurozone, (AD), (XK), (MC), (ME), (SM) (VA) FJD 242 2Fiji dollar FKP 238 2Falkland Islands pound (pegged to GBP 1:1) GBP 826 2Pound sterling , (IM, see Manx pound), (JE, see Jersey pound), (GG, see Guernsey pound), (SH-TA) GEL 981 2Georgian lari GHS 936 2Ghanaian cedi GIP 292 2Gibraltar pound (pegged to GBP 1:1) GMD 270 2Gambian dalasi GNF 324 0 Guinean franc GTQ 320 2Guatemalan quetzal GYD 328 2Guyanese dollar HKD 344 2Hong Kong dollar HNL 340 2Honduran lempira HTG 332 2Haitian gourde HUF 348 2Hungarian forint IDR 360 2Indonesian rupiah ILS 376 2Israeli new shekel INR 356 2Indian rupee , (BT) IQD 368 3Iraqi dinar IRR 364 2Iranian rial ISK 352 0 Icelandic króna JMD 388 2Jamaican dollar JOD 400 3Jordanian dinar JPY 392 0 Japanese yen KES 404 2Kenyan shilling KGS 417 2Kyrgyzstani som KHR 116 2Cambodian riel KMF 174 0 Comoro franc KPW 408 2North Korean won KRW 410 0 South Korean won KWD 414 3Kuwaiti dinar KYD 136 2Cayman Islands dollar KZT 398 2Kazakhstani tenge LAK 418 2Lao kip LBP 422 2Lebanese pound LKR 144 2Sri Lankan rupee LRD 430 2Liberian dollar LSL 426 2Lesotho loti LYD 434 3Libyan dinar MAD 504 2Moroccan dirham , (EH) MDL 498 2Moldovan leu MGA 969 2 Malagasy ariary MKD 807 2Macedonian denar MMK 104 2Myanmar kyat MNT 496 2Mongolian tögrög MOP 446 2Macanese pataca MRU 929 2Mauritanian ouguiya MUR 480 2Mauritian rupee MVR 462 2Maldivian rufiyaa MWK 454 2Malawian kwacha MXN 484 2Mexican peso MXV 979 2Mexican Unidad de Inversion (UDI) (funds code) MYR 458 2Malaysian ringgit MZN 943 2Mozambican metical NAD 516 2Namibian dollar (pegged to ZAR 1:1) NGN 566 2Nigerian naira NIO 558 2Nicaraguan córdoba NOK 578 2Norwegian krone , and (SJ), (BV) NPR 524 2Nepalese rupee NZD 554 2New Zealand dollar , (CK), (NU), (PN; see also Pitcairn Islands dollar), (TK) OMR 512 3Omani rial PAB 590 2Panamanian balboa (pegged to USD 1:1) PEN 604 2Peruvian sol PGK 598 2Papua New Guinean kina PHP 608 2Philippine peso PKR 586 2Pakistani rupee PLN 985 2Polish złoty PYG 600 0 Paraguayan guaraní QAR 634 2Qatari riyal RON 946 2Romanian leu RSD 941 2Serbian dinar RUB 643 2Russian ruble RWF 646 0 Rwandan franc SAR 682 2Saudi riyal SBD 090 2Solomon Islands dollar SCR 690 2Seychelles rupee SDG 938 2Sudanese pound SEK 752 2Swedish krona SGD 702 2Singapore dollar SHP 654 2Saint Helena pound (SH-HL), (SH-AC) SLE 925 2Sierra Leonean leone (new leone) SOS 706 2Somali shilling SRD 968 2Surinamese dollar SSP 728 2South Sudanese pound STN 930 2 São Tomé and Príncipe dobra SVC 222 2Salvadoran colón SYP 760 2Syrian pound SZL 748 2Swazi lilangeni THB 764 2Thai baht TJS 972 2Tajikistani somoni TMT 934 2Turkmenistan manat TND 788 3Tunisian dinar TOP 776 2Tongan paʻanga TRY 949 2Turkish lira TTD 780 2Trinidad and Tobago dollar TWD 901 2New Taiwan dollar TZS 834 2Tanzanian shilling UAH 980 2Ukrainian hryvnia UGX 800 0 Ugandan shilling USD 840 2United States dollar , (AS), (IO) (also uses GBP), (VG), (BQ - Caribbean Netherlands), (EC), (SV), (GU), (MH), (FM), (MP), (PW), (PA) (as well as Panamanian Balboa), (PR), (TL), (TC), (VI), (UM) USN 997 2 United States dollar (next day) (funds code) UYI 940 0 Uruguay Peso en Unidades Indexadas (URUIURUI) (funds code) UYU 858 2Uruguayan peso UYW 927 4 Unidad previsional UZS 860 2Uzbekistani sum VED 926 2Venezuelan digital bolívar VES 928 2Venezuelan sovereign bolívar VND 704 0 Vietnamese đồng VUV 548 0 Vanuatu vatu WST 882 2Samoan tala XAD 396 2 Arab Accounting Dinar Arab Monetary Fund XAF 950 0 CFA franc BEAC (CM), (CF), (CG), (TD), (GQ), (GA) XAG 961 .Silver (one troy ounce) XAU 959 .Gold (one troy ounce) XBA 955 .European Composite Unit (EURCO) (bond market unit) XBB 956 .European Monetary Unit (E.M.U.-6) (bond market unit) XBC 957 .European Unit of Account 9 (E.U.A.-9) (bond market unit) XBD 958 .European Unit of Account 17 (E.U.A.-17) (bond market unit) XCD 951 2East Caribbean dollar (AI), (AG), (DM), (GD), (MS), (KN), (LC), (VC) XCG 532 2Caribbean guilder (CW), (SX) XDR 960 .Special drawing rights International Monetary Fund XOF 952 0 CFA franc BCEAO (BJ), (BF), (CI), (GW), (ML), (NE), (SN), (TG) XPD 964 .Palladium (one troy ounce) XPF 953 0 CFP franc (franc Pacifique) French territories of the Pacific Ocean: (PF), (NC), (WF) XPT 962 .Platinum (one troy ounce) XSU 994 .SUCRE Unified System for Regional Compensation (SUCRE) XTS 963 . Code reserved for testing XUA 965 .ADB Unit of Account African Development Bank XXX 999 . No currency YER 886 2Yemeni rial ZAR 710 2South African rand , (SZ), (LS), (NA) ZMW 967 2Zambian kwacha ZWG 924 2Zimbabwe Gold
According to UN/CEFACT recommendation 9, paragraphs 8–9 ECE/TRADE/203, 1996: