Do minor currency units have a ISO standard?

internationalization standards currency iso

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Solution 1

The standard also defines the relationship between the major currency unit and any minor currency unit. Often, the minor currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but 1/1000 is also common. Some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all. In others, the major currency unit has so little value that the minor unit is no longer generally used (e.g. the Japanese sen, 1/100th of a yen). This is indicated in the standard by the currency exponent. For example, USD has exponent 2, while JPY has exponent 0. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya (UM) = 5 khoums, and Madagascar has 1 ariary = 5 iraimbilanja.

Wikipedia.

As for a better word, how does minor currency unit suit? Although, Wikipedia also refers to it as sub unit. Take your pick.

There is a table on that Wikipedia article listing the standard precision for the minor currency unit.

As a sidenote, Wikipedia provides the fractional unit name for all circulating currencies.

Solution 2

You need to look at the standard itself.

From the ISO website:

ISO 4217:2008 specifies the structure for a three-letter alphabetic code and an equivalent three-digit numeric code for the representation of currencies and funds. For those currencies having minor units, it also shows the decimal relationship between such units and the currency itself.

ISO 4217:2008 also establishes procedures for a Maintenance Agency, and specifies the method of application for codes.

The key bit is:

it also shows the decimal relationship between such units and the currency itself.

So to answer your question, I couldn't find an ISO Standard that discusses minor units. Similar standards discuss Commercial Administration and Finance.

Solution 3

In the financial markets there's roughly two established industry standards.

The first one is really a case-by-case agreement, mostly enforced by exchanges that have their securities quote in the minor currency unit. This lead to:

GBX for British pence
ZAC for South-African cents
ILA for Israeli agorot

Probably pioneered by Reuters and Bloomberg, the second standard is far more wide-spread and consistent. The agreement is to lowercase the third letter to denote the minor units.

GBp, ZAr, ILs, USd, EUr, etc.

Related discussions:

http://www.fixtradingcommunity.org/pg/discussions/topicpost/167427/

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Pekka

Self-employed web developer and graphic designer. After-hours artist. Working from an old off-the-grid house in the Canary Islands. Not doing much here any more because the Stack Overflow I wish to build and participate in is no longer supported and the company running it has started going down a path of incomprehensible, increasingly outright evil actions. E-Mail: first name at gmx dot de

Updated on May 20, 2022

Comments

Pekka about 2 years
ISO 4217 defines 3-letter currency symbols:
- EUR
- USD
- LKR
- GBP
Do currencies' minor units (cent, pence) have a ISO or similar standard, too, that defines codes for those sub-units like
- ct
- p
?
Pekka over 13 years

So it looks like there is no international standard for sub-units. Which makes kind of sense in international commerce... Cheers!
Dolan over 5 years

Link is broken!
jedwidz over 3 years

Lowercasing the third letter is simple, appealing and wrong. GBp is OK, but Reuters uses USc (from 'US cents') and not USd. Also the convention doesn't cover all currencies with minor units. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…