Securities Identification Codes: SYMBOL, CUSIP, ISIN, SEDOL, RIC Code

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I have been thinking of gettting some details of all the security codes together from a while. In this article I have explained some fundamental details of each identifier. These are heavily used in daily life of the technical and nontechnical staff of the financial firms.

List different security Identifier used in financial marktes are:

SYMBOL
CUSIP
ISIN
SEDOL
RIC Code
You can also download the presentation on this subject Security Identifiers

SYMBOL / TICKER / TICKER SYBMOL / STOCK SYMBOL

The SYMBOL is another unique identifies used to represent a particular security listed on an exchange or traded publicly. Very commonly used for trading, market data and other places. All listed securities have unique ticker symbol.

Some examples are: IBM, MSFT, GE etc.

ISIN

ISIN stands for “International Securities Identification Number”. It is used to uniquely identifies a security. It is originated from ISO 6166. ISIN is used to identify bonds, commercial paper, equities, warrants and most of the listed derivatives. The ISIN code is a 12 character alphanumerical code.

One distinction is that ISIN code doesn’t change by exchange or currency it trades. It is unique unlike symbol that may change based on exhcnage and currency.

To distinguish the exchange it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trading location in this case, and another identifier, typically MIC or the three-letter exchange code, will have to be specified in addition to the ISIN. The SEDOL board of the London Stock Exchange has revised their own standards to address this issue.

Example: LT0000610040

CUSIP

The CUSIP number or simply a CUSIP is another key identifier used finanical marketsm to uniquely identify the company or issuer and the type of security.
CUSIP stands for “Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures”. The CUSIP number is mainly used for US and Canadian stocks, and US government and municipal bonds.

The CUSIP number is nine characters wide and its a combination of letters and numbers. The first six characters identify the issuer and are assigned in an alphabetical fashion; the seventh and eighth characters identify the type of issue; and the last digit is used as a check digit.

The CUSIP Service Bureau is operated by Standard & Poor’s on behalf of the American Bankers Association (ABA). You can learn more at http://www.cusip.com.

Example: 008000AA7 (more examples)

SEDOL

The SEDOL is used for all securities trading on the London Stock Exchange and other exchanges in the U.K. The SEDOL stands for “Stock Exchange Daily Official List” and it is seven characters wide. It is combination of letters and numbers.

Generally used to identify the UK securities that are not traded in US. Unique code is issued for each market the security is listed on. You should also know about MIC that is used to identify Markets(exchanges).

Example: B0WNLY7

RIC Code

The RIC stands for “Reuters Instrument Code”,used by Reuters to identify financial instruments and indices. The codes are used for looking up information on various Reuters financial information networks.

RIC code is mainly two parts. First part is a symbol and second part is exchange code which is optional. Second part is separated by period.

Example: MSFT.OQ representst the Microsoft on NASDAQ.

Additional Notes:

Sample CUSIPS (Just few details of some of the bonds issued by different corporations are given):

14149YAR9 – Corporate Bond – Cardinal Health Inc
126650BG4 – Corporate Bond -CVS Caremark Corp
254709AC2 – Corporate Bond -Discover Finl Services
437076AQ5 – Corporate Bond -Home Depot Inc
441060AG5 – Corporate Bond -Hospira Inc
50075NAN4 – Corporate Bond -Kraft Foods Inc
574599BE5 – Corporate Bond -Masco Corp
617446B99 – Corporate Bond -Morgan Stanley
637640AC7 – Corporate Bond -Natl Semicon Corp
713291AL6 – Corporate Bond -Pepco Hldgs Inc
852061AE0 – Corporate Bond -Sprint Nextel Corp
887317AA3 – Corporate Bond -Time Warner Inc
925524BF6 – Corporate Bond -Viacom
125509BG3 – Corporate Bond -Cigna Corp
125896AV2 – Corporate Bond -CMS Engy Corp

References
CUSIP home page
SEDOL Details From LSE
MIC List
NASDAQ Website http://www.nasdaq.com
NYSE Website – http://www.nyse.com/
CBOE Website – http://www.cboe.com/
NYMEX Website – http://www.nymex.com