About the Danish Krone
The Danish krone (plural kroner) is the currency of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, issued by Danmarks Nationalbank. Denmark is a member of the EU but has a legal opt-out from the euro, and voters rejected joining it in a referendum in 2000.
Instead, the krone is pegged to the euro through the EU's exchange rate mechanism, ERM II, at a central rate of 7.46038 kroner per euro. The formal band is ±2.25%, but in practice the Nationalbank keeps the rate far closer to the central rate than that. Keeping the peg is the Nationalbank's only monetary policy goal, so it moves its interest rates in step with the European Central Bank.
Because of the peg, EUR/DKK barely moves. The krone's rate against the dollar, the pound or the yuan therefore follows the euro's rate against those currencies almost exactly.
Paying in DKK
- Registration number and IBAN
- A Danish account is identified by a 4-digit registration number (reg. nr., the bank and branch) and an account number of up to 10 digits. For payments from abroad, use the IBAN, which starts DK and is 18 characters long, together with the bank's SWIFT/BIC code.
- FI payment lines
- Danish invoices often carry an FI payment line, starting +71, +73 or +75, which identifies the creditor and the payment. Danish banks process these automatically; from abroad, pay to the IBAN and put the payment ID from that line in the reference.
- NemKonto
- Every Danish citizen and business has a NemKonto, the account public authorities pay into. If you are paying a Danish public body, or receiving from one, the NemKonto is the account that matters.
- Settlement and SEPA
- Payments in kroner between Danish banks settle at Danmarks Nationalbank, and most transfers arrive within seconds. Denmark is in SEPA, but SEPA covers euro payments only, so a DKK payment is not a SEPA transfer.
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