Futures and options reference data vendor FOW Tradedata has added symbology for prescribed European futures and options markets under MiFID’s mandatory transaction reporting requirements to its Xymbology service of Alternative Instrument Identification (AII).

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Cusip Global Services has launched two new services: a premium level version of Cusip Access for clients that require more advanced options for managing reference data and a new platform through which European agent banks can request Cusip or ISIN identifiers.

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Cusip Global Services has launched two new services: a premium level version of Cusip Access for clients that require more advanced options for managing reference data and a new platform through which European agent banks can request Cusip or ISIN identifiers.

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Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has made its Cusip Master File database available through GoldenSource. Under the arrangement users can access Cusip and other S&P data through GoldenSource in a format that will let them manage risk exposure more effectively by identifying issues and issuers from a variety of sources.

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The CUSIP Service Bureau (CSB), the provider of unique issuer and instrument identifiers operated for the American Bankers Association by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), has introduced CUSIP Request, a new web-based system for processing requests for securities identifiers.

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The London Stock Exchange has entered into a strategic collaboration with FOW TRADEdata, aggregator and distributor of reference data for exchange traded derivatives, with the aim of bringing Sedol instrument codes fully into the futures and options market. As a result of the relationship, Sedol codes, in addition to other identification codes used within the industry, will be distributed through FOW TRADEdata’s symbology mapping service TRADEstep. This should enable more efficient trade processing, settlement and compliance of futures and options, the partners say.

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The CUSIP Service Bureau (CSB) has launched a web-based CSB-ISIN Look-up Service, which provides unique CUSIP-based International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) identifiers for more than 3.6 million securities and their issuers. This new web-based capability makes it easier for institutions to identify securities issued by the CSB and efficiently trade, settle and clear securities by providing a common language for handling securities across firms, exchanges and countries.

Euroclear NIEC (Nederlands Interprofessioneel Effectencentrum NIEC) is to serve as the national numbering agent for newly issued securities in the Netherlands. The transfer of this service from Euronext Amsterdam will take place in accordance with the rules of the Association of National Numbering Agencies for role transfers. More than 70 per cent of newly created NL-ISIN codes are for non-listed securities, and for this reason the National Numbering Agent function fits best with Euroclear’s role.

ISIDPlus, a cross-reference securities identifier service targeted at asset managers, now covers one million issues globally. Established in 1989, ISIDPlus is a strategic alliance between Standard & Poor’s and Telekurs Financial designed to bring clarity to financial information, including securities identification, pricing and corporate action information. “ISIDPlus allows customers to view substantial information from various sources, which enables customers to link into industry related information from front office to back office data,” explains Lance Rissi, product manager for S&P Securities Classifications. “In addition to Telekurs’ global network of data analysts, we have between us (Telekurs and S&P) a relationship with all of the issuers of ISIN numbers and receive daily updates when new securities are added or if there has been any change to a security identification number,” adds Barry Raskin, president, Telekurs (USA).

The Standard & Poor’s Cusip Service Bureau has unveiled Cusip Now, an issue alert service available free to all licensed Cusip customers from December. Cusip Now uses push technology to deliver new Cusip issues and reference data to market participants every 15 minutes. The service delivers Cusip data via FTP downloads to client databases and will include corporate debt and equity issues as well as competitive and negotiated municipal bond offerings that are registered with the Cusip Service Bureau.

The securities master database ADP Brokerage Services maintains and provides to users of its bureau based Global Processing Solution now contains more than 8 million securities. While 14 GPS clients take advantage of the service ADP also provides it to two non-GPS clients, and has recently secured a contract for its provision to a non-bureau ADP customer. The vendor intends to pursue opportunities to provide the service to other non-bureau clients going forward.

The London Stock Exchange has launched two new products, SEDOL Validator (SEVAL) and the Data Validation Service (DVS). SEVAL enables users to validate their securities masterfiles against the SEDOL Masterfile held at the Exchange. The DVS is a generic data reconciliation engine that enables users to rapidly validate multiple sources of data. SEVAL and the DVS can be accessed via a secure web service, which is hosted and operated by the Exchange.

Following a custom implementation at Rabobank International, Standard & Poor’s has launched Reference Entity Link, aimed at the credit default swaps marketplace. The service, which draws upon Markit’s Reference Entity Database (RED) provides full issuer and issue coverage behind each CLIP code.

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Information Services provided a bright spot in the London Stock Exchange results for the six months ended September 30. Information services’ revenue rose 6% to £45.1 million, contributing 33% of total turnover. The exchange’s new SEDOL Masterfile service, which provides unique identification for securities on a global basis, has now more than 1,000 licenses sold. The number of securities covered has risen to 700,000 from 450,000 at the end of March. Overall exchange revenues rose 15% in the period to £136.1 million. Operating profit was down almost half due to a one-time charge related to the exchange’s derivatives joint venture.

A new service from Standard & Poor’s will use push technology to deliver Cusip identifiers for competitive and negotiated municipal bond deals to fixed income and equity market participants every 15 minutes. With the New Issues On the Web (S&P Now) service, says Jim Taylor, managing director at S&P, “we are fundamentally changing the delivery of new Cusip numbers to fixed income and equity markets … [to] help broker/dealers meet new regulatory and business requirements for more fluid and efficient markets.” S&P also last month made its Associated Obligor Link service available through Securities DataManager. This enables clients to use identifier numbers to identify the ultimate obligors or guarantors responsible for issued debt.

Bending to customer pressure, Standard & Poor’s has taken steps to address concerns over its pricing policies for Cusip instrument identifiers by restructuring its pricing and providing some level of transparency.

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The issue of timely access to ISIN securities identifiers in Canada is now being evaluated by the Canadian Capital Markets Association’s (CCMA) Institutional Program Steering Committee. The CCMA has been identifying problems holding up straight through processing and has highlighted asset and counterparty identification as presenting the biggest issues. ISINs are currently issued in Canada by the Canadian Depository for Securities, but there is currently no effective means of distribution. To handle the lack of timely access, financial institutions tend to issue their own internal codes, complicating the trade processing cycle.

The batting to and fro between the International Standards Organization (ISO), the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Cusip Service Bureau operated by McGraw-Hill’s Standard & Poor’s Corp. continues unabated. The latest barrage comes from ANNA members, who collectively condemned charging for ISIN-based securities identification databases, in what appears to be another thinly veiled attack on the CSB. The London-based Information Providers User Group (IPUG) also put its oar in with a letter to the S.E.C., urging that fees based on any claims of intellectual property by national numbering agencies be waived. Of course, all this is well and good. But if Standard & Poor’s hadn’t asserted its intellectual property rights, acquired through 30 years of commitment – for questionable return, particularly early on – to the concept of standards-based identifiers, we wonder whether there would be any Cusip numbers about which to argue over licensing fees.

The International Standards Organization has issued a letter of rebuke to the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA), suggesting that fees being charged by the Cusip Service Bureau for its numbering database may be out of step with ISO policy. Cusip is operated by Standard & Poor’s under license from the American Bankers Association. Cusip doesn’t publish a price schedule, but is believed to be attempting to charge six-figure numbers for its database of securities identifiers. According to research conducted by A-Team Consulting, Cusip’s pricing is dependent on a variety of parameters, including numbers of securities covered, internal vs. external use of the data, location of storage databases and numbers of users.

The London Stock Exchange’s widely anticipated Sedol Master File (SMF) service went live on March 15 in the hopes of exploiting what it sees as an opportunity to supply more detailed identity information particularly in the area of cross-border trading. After the first week of operation, around 50% of the LSE’s users had accessed the SMF service, and the remainder are expected to do so over the week or so.

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