Czech Koruna and Czech National Bank
Czech Koruna, the official currency of the Czech Republic
The official currency of the Czech Republic is Czech Koruna (Czech crown), or CZK. See more information about CZK banknotes and coins and about exchanging money in Prague.
Czech National Bank
The central bank of the Czech Republic is Czech National Bank (Ceska Narodni Banka in Czech, or CNB). You can see its headquarters at Namesti Republiky at the beginning of the shopping street Na Prikope, opposite the Municipal House.
The role of Czech National Bank is monetary policy and supervision of the financial services sector. CNB is the regulator for Czech banks, insurance companies, and brokers.
What can be useful for a tourist is the fact that Czech National Bank quotes the official reference exchange rates of Czech Koruna against about 30 other currencies. You will find the reference CZK rate in the top right corner of the CNB website. If you want to see the rates for other currencies than euro and dollar, click on Kurzy.
Foreign exchange regulation in the Czech Republic
In short, there are no restrictions.
The reference rate quoted by Czech National Bank has its role only for accounting or tax purposes and it does not regulate or influence the rates you get in banks or money exchange offices. Companies are not bound by the reference rate in any way and the exchange rates of Czech Koruna in real life are determined only by supply and demand on the foreign exchange market.
Czech Koruna is freely convertible and there are no foreign exchange limits. There are no limits on the amount of Czech Koruna or any other currency that you can bring to the Czech Republic or take away on your travel.
The exchange rate of Czech Koruna is under the managed floating currency regime, which means that Czech National Bank does not have any administrative power over the exchange rate (it can’t just say that the rate of CZK vs. EUR is 25), but it can indirectly influence the exchange rate using money market operations (buying or selling foreign currencies in order to influence the demand and supply in the foreign exchange market).
Topics: Money & Banking, Czech banks, Czech Koruna, Czech National Bank