ISO 18774:2024

Financial services - Financial instrument short name (FISN)

This document specifies rules for an international method for building financial instrument short names (FISNs) for any kind of financial or referential instrument within a defined structure. Financial or referential instruments include, but are not limited to, those described by ISO 10962. This document is applicable to any application in the trading and administration of financial or referential instruments in the financial services. The FISN code takes into account the need for human-readability as well as interoperability with existing standards and systems.

Services financiers — Nom court de l'instrument financier (FISN)

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 13-Nov-2024
• ICS: 03.060 - Finances. Banking. Monetary systems. Insurance
• Technical Committee: ISO/TC 68/SC 8 - Reference data for financial services
• Drafting Committee: ISO/TC 68/SC 8 - Reference data for financial services
• Current Stage: 6060 - International Standard published
• Start Date: 14-Nov-2024
• Due Date: 22-Mar-2025
• Completion Date: 14-Nov-2024

Relations

• Revises: ISO 18774:2015 - Securities and related financial instruments - Financial Instrument Short Name (FISN)
• Effective Date: 06-Jun-2022

Overview - ISO 18774:2024 (FISN)

ISO 18774:2024 defines an international method for constructing financial instrument short names (FISNs) used across financial services. The standard prescribes a compact, human‑readable short name format (maximum 35 alphanumeric characters) for any financial or referential instrument - supporting trading, administration, market data and straight‑through processing. The second edition clarifies alignment with CFI/ISO 10962 and expands coverage to additional instrument types (e.g., OTC derivatives, carbon credits, emission certificates, financing).

Key topics and technical requirements

• Structure and length
  • Maximum length: 35 alphanumeric characters (ISO/IEC 8859‑1).
  • Components: Issuer short name + “/” delimiter + Instrument description.
  • Issuer short name: up to 15 characters (can be extended for CIVs and some derivatives).
  • Instrument description: uses remaining space (up to 19 characters if issuer uses full 15).
• Formatting rules
  • Use upper case only; single blanks between abbreviation tokens; no special characters unless specified.
  • Abbreviations follow the registration authority (RA) list.
  • Interest rates: numeric or alphanumeric, no percent sign, use decimal point.
  • Maturity date: YYYYMMDD (eight characters); perpetuals use designated abbreviations.
• Component sequencing
  • Predefined sequences per instrument type (debt, equity, CIV, listed/OTC derivatives, structured products, loans, financing, referential instruments). For example, debt FISNs prioritize Interest rate/Type → Instrument type → Maturity date → Rank → Pool number, etc.
• Governance
  • A registration authority (RA) allocates and maintains FISN elements; RA guidelines govern updates and lifecycle changes.
• Interoperability considerations
  • Designed for human readability while interoperating with existing identifiers - notably ISIN (ISO 6166) and CFI (ISO 10962).
  • Information about issuance technology (e.g., DLT tokens) is kept outside the FISN in associated records.

Applications and users

ISO 18774:2024 is intended for:

• Banks, broker‑dealers and custodians for trade reporting and tradebooks.
• Exchanges and market data vendors to standardize short names on screens and feeds.
• Asset managers and registrars for prospectuses, term sheets and fund documentation.
• Regulators and repositories for clearer reporting and reconciliation.
• Fintech and DLT platforms that need interoperable human‑readable labels (while keeping technology metadata separate).

Benefits include improved data consistency, reduced ambiguity in cross‑border trading, better screen display of instrument names, and enhanced straight‑through processing.

Related standards

• ISO 6166 - ISIN (International Securities Identification Number)
• ISO 10962 - CFI (Classification of Financial Instruments)
• ISO/IEC 8859‑1 - character set used for FISN encoding

Keywords: ISO 18774:2024, FISN, financial instrument short name, ISO, ISIN, CFI, trading, reference data, registration authority, interoperability, human‑readability.

Standards Content (Sample)

International
Standard
ISO 18774
Second edition
Financial services — Financial
2024-11
instrument short name (FISN)
Services financiers — Nom court de l'instrument financier (FISN)
Reference number
© ISO 2024
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Conventions and principles . 1
5 Structures of the instrument description . 3
5.1 General .3
5.2 Debt.3
5.3 Equity .3
5.4 Collective investment vehicles (CIV) .4
5.5 Entitlements . .4
5.6 Listed derivatives.4
5.7 OTC derivatives .5
5.8 Structured products .6
5.9 Referential instruments .6
5.10 Loans .6
5.11 Financing .6
5.12 Others .7
6 Responsibilities of the registration authority . 7
6.1 General .7
6.2 Allocation of financial instrument short names .7
6.3 Application for FISN .7
6.4 Service provision .7
7 Information and enquiries . 7
Annex A (informative) Examples of financial instrument short names . 8
Bibliography .15

iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through
ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee
has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations,
governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely
with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the
ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent
rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a)
patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that
this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at
www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 68, Financial services, Subcommittee SC 8,
Reference data for financial services.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 18774:2015), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— clarification that the FISN follows in principle the CFI code categories and partially groups according to
ISO 10962;
— addition of new instrument types to which the FISN code can be allocated (such as OTC derivatives,
carbon credits, and emission certificates and financing).
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

iv
Introduction
The financial instrument short name (FISN) code has been developed to provide a consistent and uniform
approach to standardize short descriptions for financial instruments. It aims to harmonize existing market
practices which are in use on a national and individual entity level.
With the growth of cross-border trading, the requirement to improve communication of information among
market participants has become critical. A worldwide implementation of straight through processing
in the securities business requires the use of complementary standardized data elements. For instance,
ISO 6166 (ISIN) and ISO 10962 (CFI) are key information elements for identifying and classifying financial
instruments, and FISN aids human-readability.
The market players of the securities industry usually report on securities transactions by using short
descriptions of the involved financial instruments. Currently, market data vendors, banks and securities
exchanges describe financial instruments in their databases using their own short names. The names vary
in length and also with regard to the attributes composing them and their sequence. The fact that they are
defined in local languages limits their use to the local area.
Besides the requirements of straight through processing, there are other developments which make the use
of standardized short names an urgent issue, such as the internet technology which has allowed the growth
of e-issuing, e-trading and e-settlements. The prices reported on websites are usually accompanied by short
names of the involved securities. Screens limit the space available for the different data elements displayed
and especially for short names. Therefore, a standardization of the short name’s length, structure and
contents will be a benefit for communication and processing purposes. In addition, retail investors are more
likely to identify their securities by using the instrument short name, rather than any identification number.
The solution envisaged consists of using a standard maximum length as well as a standardized structure of
the field. The issuer short name which builds the first element (beginning from the left) is followed by a set
of characteristics of the financial instrument.
The development of these codes will encourage market participants to take advantage of other International
Standards, particularly ISINs (see ISO 6166), and securities messages to simplify the communication process
among market participants, and to increase the efficiency, reliability, data consistency and transparency
of financial services transactions and reference data. Describing financial instruments in a structured and
standardized way can also be beneficial for regulatory reporting.
The improved identification of financial instruments will lead to a better understanding by investors, giving
them more confidence to make investment decisions and leading to more active markets. This, in turn, will
result in improved market liquidity.

v
International Standard ISO 18774:2024(en)
Financial services — Financial instrument short name (FISN)
1 Scope
This document specifies rules for an international method for building financial instrument short names
(FISNs) for any kind of financial or referential instrument within a defined structure. Financial or referential
instruments include, but are not limited to, those described by ISO 10962.
This document is applicable to any application in the trading and administration of financial or referential
instruments in the financial services.
The FISN code takes into account the need for human-readability as well as interoperability with existing
standards and systems.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references,
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC 8859-1, Information technology — 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets — Part 1: Latin
alphabet No. 1
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
issuer short name
abbreviation of the official legal issuer or entity (“the issuer”) name, limited to a maximum of 15
alphanumeric characters
3.2
instrument description
collection of characteristics and attributes defining a financial or referential instrument
4 Conventions and principles
The FISN shall have a maximum length of 35 alphanumeric characters as specified in ISO/IEC 8859-1. In
order to create FISNs that fit into the defined maximum length, certain terms shall be abbreviated. Rules
are provided by this document to specify the data elements, sequence, delimiters and punctuation related
to the FISN. It consists of abbreviations of financial or referential instrument terms and legal issuer or
entity issue names which are necessary components of the FISN structure that may change during life cycle
of an instrument. The registration authority (RA) for this document is responsible for the allocation and
maintenance of the elements of the FISN.

The FISN is composed of the following:
— Issuer short name. In the case of collective investment vehicles (CIVs) and derivatives, the issuer short
name can be extended beyond 15 alphanumeric characters up to the maximum length of the FISN (see
5.4 and 5.6). Exception: Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives do not have an issuer and so this section of
the FISN in front of the “/” delimiter is composed of the abbreviated Asset Class and Instrument Type for
the product (see 5.7).
— “/” as the delimiter between the issuer short name and the instrument description.
— Instrument description (as indicated in the legal documents, e.g. Prospectus/Term sheets), with a
maximum length of up to 19 alphanumeric characters, assuming that the available length of the issuer
short name has been fully used including the delimiter (“/”). In cases where all characters have not been
used in the issuer short name, the instrument description can use the remaining space (following the “/”)
up to the maximum of 35 characters to describe the characteristics of the instrument.
The FISN structure conforms to the following:
— use only upper cases;
— use only maximum of a single blank and no special characters within Issuer and Instrument short name
elements, unless specified in the FISN guidelines;
— use the abbreviation list provided by the RA;
— abbreviations forming the FISN shall be separated by single space.
A financial instrument can also be issued as a digital token (e.g. uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) for
its issuance, storage, exchange, record of ownership or transaction validation). Information on the usage of
DLT shall not be included as an element of the FISN, since information on other forms such as book entry are
also not part of the FISN. This information should be kept in an associated data record externally.
In cases where only preliminary information is available, the FISN shall be updated and distributed as more
complete information becomes available.
For FISN component changes/updates, the guidelines available from the RA should be consulted.
Figure 1 — Example: Senior reg S debt bond with an interest rate of 3,63 % and maturing on
2042.06.22 issued by UBS Group AG, ISIN CH1195555425

Figure 2 — Example: Single currency fixed-float interest rate swap with constant notional and
physical delivery, ISIN EZM0J3C70XB0
5 Structures of the instrument description
5.1 General
For the purposes of this document, the structures given in 5.2 to 5.12 reflect all possible attributes as being
potential components per type of financial instrument. In most cases, not all of them apply to the same
instrument. However, the indicated sequence shall be applied after the issuer short name or abbreviated
asset class/instrument type for OTC derivatives.
5.2 Debt
For debt groups, the sequence of the components considered critical shall be as follows:
— Debt: Interest rate/Type + Abbreviated instrument type description + Maturity Date + Rank + Pool
number + Class + Series + Tranche + Trust + Program + Guarantee + Restrictions.
EXAMPLE If the security type description has two characters left, and the next component in the sequence
is “Rank”, then this component has priority over “Pool number” in cases where both elements exist for a financial
instrument. If the maximum of 35 characters is reached, “Rank” is used before using “Pool number”.
Interest rate/Type shall consist of the interest rate, which can be either numeric or alphanumeric. The
percent sign shall not be included. The decimal point shall be used in the interest rate.
The abbreviated instrument type description shall be in accordance with the abbreviations list.
Maturity Date shall consist of eight characters, which shall include YYYYMMDD. In cases where the security
is perpetual, the associated abbreviation should be used.
5.3 Equity
Equity groups shall have the following structure and sequence of components that are critical for equity
securities:
— Shares (common/ordinary): Abbreviated instrument type description + Non-voting + Class + Series +
Partly paid + Restrictions + Par value.
— Depositary receipts on equities: Abbreviated instrument type description [e.g. S (for sponsored) ADR
(American depositary receipt), GDR (global depositary receipt)] + Restrictions.

— Depositary shares: Abbreviated instrument type description + Class + Series.
— Preferred/preference shares: Interest rate/dividend amount + Characteristics (cumulative, convertible,
exchangeable, redeemable) + Abbreviated instrument type description (preference, preferred, preferred
share of beneficial interest) + Class + Series.
— Limited partnership: Abbreviated instrument type description + Nil/Partly/Fully paid + Class + Series +
Currency (see ISO 4217).
5.4 Collective investment vehicles (CIV)
CIVs shall have the following structure and sequence of components:
— CIV: Abbreviated instrument type
...