History of the euro succeeding the EMCF, under Maastricht. It was created as the forerunner to the European Central Bank. It met for the first time on 12 January under its first president, Alexandre Lamfalussy. After much disagreement, in December 1995 the name "euro" was adopted for the new currency (replacing the name "Ecu" used for the previous accounting currency), on the suggestion of then-German finance minister Theo Waigel. They also agreed on the date 1 January 1999 for its launch. On 17 June 1997 the European Council decided in Amsterdam to adopt the Stability and Growth Pact, designed to ensure budgetary discipline after
Currency substitution financial assets denominated in a foreign currency. It can also occur as a gradual conversion to full currency substitution, for example, Argentina and Peru were both in the process of converting to the U.S. dollar during the 1990s. "Dollarization", when referring to currency substitution, does not necessarily involve use of the United States dollar. The currencies that have been used as substitutes have been the US dollar, the euro, and the Australian dollar. After the gold standard was abandoned at the outbreak of World War I and the Bretton Woods Conference following World War II, some countries sought exchange rate