European Currency Unit

European Currency Unit
ISO 4217
CodeXEU
Unit
Symbol
NicknameECU
Demographics
Date of introduction13 April 1979
ReplacedEuropean Unit of Account
Date of withdrawal31 December 1998
Replaced byEuro
User(s)
Valuation
Pegged with
  • 8 currencies (1979–1989)
  • 12 currencies (1989–1998)
This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete.

The European Currency Unit (French: Unité de compte européenne, Spanish: Unidad Monetaria Europea, German: Europäische Währungseinheit ; ⟨⟩, ECU, or XEU) was a unit of account used by the European Economic Community and composed of a basket of member country currencies. The ECU came in to operation on 13 March 1979 and was assigned the ISO 4217 code.[1] The ECU replaced the European Unit of Account (EUA) at parity in 1979, and it was later replaced by the euro (EUR) at parity on 1 January 1999.[1]

As a unit of account, the ECU was not a circulating currency and did not replace or override the value of the currency of EEC member countries. However, it was used to price some international financial transactions and capital transfers.[2]

  1. ^ a b "European Currency Unit (ECU)". UBC Sauder School of Business. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  2. ^ Scott, David L. (September 2003). Wall Street Words: An Essential A to Z Guide for Today's Investor (3rd ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin. p. 130. ISBN 9780395886076.