The ISO 4217 code for the Chinese yuan, the main unit of China’s renminbi, is CNY.
ISO 4217 codes are three-letter identifiers used by banks, payment systems and financial markets. CNY combines CN, China’s country code, with Y, taken from yuan. The code identifies the currency internationally even though “yuan” is technically the currency’s basic unit and renminbi is its formal name.
The renminbi was introduced by the People’s Republic of China in 1948 and is issued by the People’s Bank of China. One yuan is divided into 10 jiao, and each jiao is divided into 10 fen, although the smallest denominations are rarely used in everyday transactions.
RMB is a widely used abbreviation for renminbi, but it is not the ISO code. CNH is another common mix-up: it generally denotes renminbi traded offshore, while CNY is used for the onshore market. The ¥ symbol can also refer to the yuan unit.