An International Securities Identification Number, or ISIN, is like a Social Security number for…well…securities. All internationally-traded securities should have their own unique 12-digit identifier; Microsoft’s ISIN, for example, is US5949181045. Facebook’s is US30303M1027.
We say “should” because, while ISINs aren’t absolutely 100% required, they’re a really good idea and are considered the international standard to follow. They’re helpful because they can tell us a little something about a particular security right off the bat. You’ll notice that Microsoft and Facebook’s ISINs both begin with “US.” Any guesses as to why that is? Yep...they’re both U.S.-based companies. Securities from other countries have different letters at the start of their ISINs. Australia-based securities, for example, begin with “AU.”
So...what’s the point? Well, like our own Social Security numbers, ISINs can help protect against fraud and other unlawful and shady uses. Also, if we’re looking at two securities and can’t tell which is which just based on the name, looking at their ISINs can clear up the confusion for us. How ISINs are created and used is defined by ISO 6616 (that’s an international standard), but it’s up to each country to actually come up with and assign ISINs to their own securities.
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Finance: What is a CUSIP Number?119 Views
Finance, a la shmoop. What is a CUSIP number? Close that's a Cusack number
867-53-09, yeah we know there. So yeah you know when you go to the grocery
store and the cashier swipes your apples eight times across that little bar code [Apple being scanned]
reader thingy and it doesn't work again and again and again and then she finally [Error coming up on the screen]
pulls back the plastic from where the Apple was tagged hunts for her glasses [Cashier putting on her glasses]
and then visually finds the number associated with that Apple and then just
manually types it in. Well that's the fruit equivalent of a CUSIP number [Guy talking in a supermarket]
A CUSIP number is well just that only applied to securities, stocks, bonds even
muni bonds. CUSIP stands for committee on uniforms security identification [The meaning of each letter is shown]
procedures, and is basically just the serial number system of securities, but [CUSIP definition written on a 100 dollar bill]
has nine digits, the first six represent the original issuer of the security like
coca-cola shares when it went public a gazillion years ago. Then the next two [The fix 6 digits are highlighted]
characters refer to that type of security at hand like is it a basic
equity bond, muni bond and the ninth digit is riboflavin yeah it's just there
to be sure the other digits are all accurate and assures that there's no [The 3 digits meaning are shown]
replication in any of the other CUSIP index number sets. So yeah CUSIP numbers
make the securities easier to track because it's awfully hard to get a
microchip into one of them. [Microchip pulled out of a bond certificate]
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