ISO 18774:2024
(Main)Financial services — Financial instrument short name (FISN)
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
Relations
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: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
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
...
Questions, Comments and Discussion
Ask us and Technical Secretary will try to provide an answer. You can facilitate discussion about the standard in here.