ISO 4217

Overview

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. 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.

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 JPY: "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 EUR 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 MXN, 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 RUR to RUB 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 840 which is also the ISO 3166-1 code for the United States.

Active codes (list one)

The following is a list of active codes of official ISO 4217 currency names as of 1 January 2026. 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:

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.

Historical codes

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.

Minor unit fractions

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 and 1000:1 respectively. The names of the minor units are not given. Examples for the ratios of 100:1 and 1000:1 include the United States dollar and the Bahraini dinar, for which the column headed "Minor unit" shows "2" and "3", respectively. As of 2021, two currencies have non-decimal ratios, the Mauritanian ouguiya and the Malagasy ariary; in both cases the ratio is 5:1. For these, the "Minor unit" column shows the number "2". Some currencies, such as the Burundian 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.

Code position in amount formatting

The ISO 4217 standard does not regulate either the spacing, prefixing or suffixing in usage of currency codes. The style guide of the European Union's Publication Office declares that, for texts issued by or through the Commission in English, Irish, Latvian, and Maltese, the ISO 4217 code is to be followed by a "hard space" (non-breaking space) and the amount:

a sum of EUR 30 and for texts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish the order is reversed; the amount is followed by a non-breaking space and the ISO 4217 code:

une somme de 30 EUR As illustrated, the order is determined not by the currency but by the native language of the document context.

USD, USN: two US currency codes

The US dollar has two codes assigned: USD and USN ("US dollar next day"). 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.

Currencies without ISO 4217 currency codes

A number of active currencies do not have an ISO 4217 code, because they may be:

a minor currency pegged at par (1:1) to a larger currency, even if independently regulated, a currency only used for commemorative banknotes or coins, or a currency of an unrecognized or partially recognized state. These currencies include:

Abkhazian apsar (state of issue is viewed as de jure part of Georgia) Alderney pound (1:1 pegged to sterling) Cook Islands dollar (1:1 pegged to the New Zealand dollar) Faroese króna (1:1 pegged to the Danish krone) Guernsey pound (1:1 pegged to sterling) Isle of Man pound (1:1 pegged to sterling) Jersey pound (1:1 pegged to sterling) Kiribati dollar (1:1 pegged to the Australian dollar) Maltese scudo (1:0.24 pegged to the euro) (Currency of the Sovereign Order of Malta; the Republic of Malta uses the euro.) Sahrawi peseta (pegged to the euro), sometimes given the code "EHP" but this has not been assigned by the ISO Somaliland shilling (state of issue is viewed as de jure part of Somalia, exchange rate not fixed) Transnistrian ruble (state of issue is viewed as de jure part of Moldova) Tuvaluan dollar (1:1 pegged to the Australian dollar) See Category:Fixed exchange rate for a list of all currently pegged currencies.

Non-standard codes

Despite having no presence or status in the standard, three letter acronyms that resemble ISO 4217 coding are sometimes used locally or commercially to represent de facto currencies or currency instruments.

The following non-ISO codes were used in the past.