European Currency Unit

European Currency Unit
ISO 4217
Code	XEU
Unit
Symbol	₠‎
Nickname	ECU
Demographics
Date of introduction	13 April 1979
Replaced	European Unit of Account
Date of withdrawal	31 December 1998
Replaced by	Euro
User(s)	European Economic Community (1979–1998); European Union (1993–1998);
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]

^ ^a ^b "European Currency Unit (ECU)". UBC Sauder School of Business. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
^ 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.

[Sauder-1] "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.

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