CUSIP

A CUSIP is a nine-character alphanumeric code that identifies a North American financial security for the purposes of facilitating clearing and settlement of trades. The CUSIP was adopted as an American National Standard under Accredited Standards X9.6.

The CUSIP system is owned by the American Bankers Association, and is operated by S&P Capital IQ. The operating body, CUSIP Global Services (CGS) also serves as the national numbering agency (NNA) for North America, and the CUSIP serves as the National Securities Identification Number (NSIN) for products issued from both the United States and Canada. In its role as the NNA, CUSIP Global Services (CGS) also assigns all US-based ISINs.

The acronym CUSIP derives from the Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures, a committee of the American Bankers Association. The Committee was founded in July 1964 and developed the CUSIP system. The Committee formed the CUSIP Service Bureau in 1968, during the paper crunch on Wall Street.

The CUSIP system has grown over the years to cover corporate, government, municipal, and international securities (through the CINS, or CUSIP International Numbering System); IPO's; preferred stock; funds; certificates of deposit; syndicated loans; and U.S. and Canadian listed options. The CGS database contains issuer and issue-level identifiers, plus standardized descriptive data, for more than 14 million financial instruments and entities. CGS is also the designated national numbering agency responsible for assigning the ISIN in over 35 other markets.

In November 2009, the European Commission charged S&P Capital IQ with abusing its position as the sole provider of ISIN codes for U.S. securities by requiring European financial firms (in the European Economic Area) and data vendors to pay licensing fees for their use. The European Commission described the behaviour as unfair pricing, noting that in cases such as clearing or regulatory compliance, there are no acceptable alternatives.

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