The European Currency Unit (₠ or ECU, ) was a basket of the currencies of the European Community member states, used as the unit of account of the European Community before being replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999, at parity. The ECU itself replaced the European Unit of Account, also at parity, on 13 March 1979. The European Exchange Rate Mechanism attempted to minimize fluctuations between member state currencies and the ECU. The ECU was also used in some international financial transactions, where its advantage was that securities denominated in ECUs provided investors with the opportunity for foreign diversification without reliance on the currency of a single country.
The ECU was conceived on 13 March 1979 as an internal accounting unit. It had the ISO 4217 currency code XEU.
Read more about European Currency Unit: Euro Replaces ECU, Etymology, Symbol, Value Determined By Basket of Currencies
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