Tyrosine sulphation is a common modification of many proteins, and the ability to phosphorylate tyrosine residues is an intrinsic property of many growth factor receptors. We have utilized the peptide hormone cholecystokinin (CCK8), which occurs naturally in both sulphated and unsulphated forms, as a model to investigate the effect of tyrosine modification on metal ion binding. The changes in absorbance and fluorescence emission on Fe3+ ion binding indicated that tyrosine sulphation or phosphorylation increased the stoichiometry from 1 to 2, without greatly affecting the affinity (0.6–2.8 μM at pH 6.5). Measurement of calcium binding with a calcium-selective electrode revealed that phosphorylated CCK8 bound two Ca2+ ions. CCK8 and sulphated CCK8 each bound only one Ca2+ ion with lower affinity. Binding of Ca2+, Zn2+ or Bi3+ ions to phosphorylated CCK8 did not cause any change in absorbance, but substantially increased the change in absorbance on subsequent addition of Fe3+ ions. Our results demonstrate that tyrosine modification may increase the affinity of metal ion binding to peptides, and imply that metal ions may directly regulate many signaling pathways.