The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA), a global association supporting efficient capital markets through the use of widely embraced International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards, has completed the implementation of the revised ‘ISO 6166’ International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) standard. The association aims to increase both clarity and transparency in the identification and reporting of financial instruments through the use of international standards.
ISO is the world’s largest developer and publisher of international standards and a non-governmental organisation aiming to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors. ISO 6166 defines the structure of an ISIN. An ISIN uniquely identifies fungible securities – conceptually similar to how barcodes work in the identification of products.
Following a systematic ISO review, the organisation published the revised ISO standard in February 2021. The revisions included an extension of the ISO record to a wider data set – from 43 to 49 fields.
ANNA agreed on the implementation timeline based on the changes needed to the ANNA Service Bureau (ASB) as well as an appropriate timeframe for NNAs to enhance their internal systems to contribute the additional data to the ASB.
ISO 6166
Following the implementation of the technical changes, NNAs must now formally report Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), the Classification of Instruments (CFIs), and the Financial Instrument Short Names (FISN), to the ASB, increasing data coverage and data quality.
The revised ISO 6166 standard also includes assignment rules for tokenised financial and referential instruments as well as for OTC derivatives, as already implemented by the Derivatives Service Bureau.
Emission allowances, carbon credits and baskets are also confirmed as instruments within the scope of ISIN assignment. The revised ISIN standard, alongside the ASB operators, brings enhanced clarity and transparency to the market. It is now available to users on the free ISIN Lookup Service and subscribers of ASB services.
Emma Kalliomaki, managing director of ANNA, commented on the news. Kalliomaki said: “NNAs have worked hard to make the internal changes to their workflows.
“The ISIN revisions have improved clarity of terms, scope and coverage of the standard, which further enhances usability, increasing transparency and aiding risk and exposure management, thereby ultimately benefiting the market.
“The complementary nature of the standards has been confirmed. The LEI, CFI, FISN and ISIN are all working together to bring identification, description and classification in one suite of ISO standards.”
