The European Unit of Account (EUA) was a unit of account most notably used in the European Communities from 1975 to 1979, when it was replaced at parity by the European Currency Unit, in turn replaced at parity in 1999 by the euro.
The EUA was introduced as the internal unit of account for the European Payments Union when that organisation was formed in 1950. The EUA was defined as 0.888671 grams of gold, or one US dollar. The unit was first used outside the EPU in 1961, when Kredietbank Luxembourgeoise issued a bond denominated in EUA. [1] After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the EUA was redefined as a basket of European currencies.
The EUA was used for Lomé Convention and European Investment Bank operations before being gradually introduced into other sectors of Community activity. [2]
The EUA basket was designed to have the same value in mid-1974 as the IMF special drawing rights basket, both worth US$1.20635; they immediately moved apart in value. Different units of account had previously been used for different purposes, including the budget, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the Common Agriculture Policy [3] following the abandonment of the gold parity unit of account in the early 1970s in the wake of the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. [4]
Various European currency baskets were used as units of account in international bond markets. Some of these were defined in ISO 4217.ISO 4217 Standard definition:
European currency baskets and ISO 4217 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Name | Alphabetic code | Numeric code | Era |
European Composite Unit (EURCO) | XBA | 955 | Active |
European Monetary Unit (E.M.U.-6) | XBB | 956 | Active |
European Unit of Account 9 (E.U.A.-9) | XBC | 957 | Active |
European Unit of Account 17 (E.U.A.-17) | XBD | 958 | Active |
European Unit of Account (EUA) | — | 1975–1978 | |
European Currency Unit (ECU) | XEU | 954 | 1978–1981 |
Euro | EUR | 978 | 1998– |
A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed.
The CFA franc is the name of two currencies used by 210 million people in fourteen African countries: the West African CFA franc, used in eight West African countries, and the Central African CFA franc, used in six Central African countries. Although separate, the two CFA franc currencies have always been at parity and are effectively interchangeable. The ISO currency codes are XAF for the Central African CFA franc and XOF for the West African CFA franc.
The European Currency Unit 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. 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.
ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions. The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions.
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 individual currencies and their minor units. This data is published in three tables:
Special drawing rights are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). SDRs are units of account for the IMF, and not a currency per se. They represent a claim to currency held by IMF member countries for which they may be exchanged. SDRs were created in 1969 to supplement a shortfall of preferred foreign exchange reserve assets, namely gold and U.S. dollars. The ISO 4217 currency code for special drawing rights is XDR and the numeric code is 960.
The UIC Franc was a virtual currency unit used by the International Union of Railways (UIC). It was introduced in 1976 after the Gold Franc was abandoned for this purpose due to instability of the international monetary system, and was replaced by the European Currency Unit on 1 January 1990.
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. They are the most widely used of the country codes published by ISO, and are used most prominently for the Internet's country code top-level domains. They are also used as country identifiers extending the postal code when appropriate within the international postal system for paper mail, and have replaced the previous one consisting one-letter codes. They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its first edition in 1974.
This is a list of international trade topics.
The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, and Australia and other countries, a total of 44 countries after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars to within 1% of fixed parity rates, with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks at US$35 per troy ounce of fine gold. It also envisioned greater cooperation among countries in order to prevent future competitive devaluations, and thus established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to monitor exchange rates and lend reserve currencies to nations with balance of payments deficits.
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The manat is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 gapiks.
The lira is the official currency of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, as well as one of the two currencies used in northern Syria under the country's interim government. One lira is divided into one hundred kuruş.
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The SUCRE was a regional currency proposed for commercial exchanges between members of the regional trade bloc Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which was created as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The SUCRE was intended to replace the US dollar as a medium of exchange.
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The gold parity unit of account was the unit of account used by the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) from 1958, and in the European Economic Community from 1962 until the early 1970s. The unit was fixed to the value of gold under the Bretton Woods system, and was equivalent to the US dollar which the ECSC had previously used.
SIX Interbank Clearing AG, based in Zürich, Switzerland, is a subsidiary of SIX Group.