FAQs

1. Which numbering agency allocates ISINs for "International" issues, i.e. should it be the International Central Securities Depository or the Issuer's country. According to the present version of ISO 6166 the ISINs for international issues are under the responsibility of the ICSD's. ANNA is conducting internal discussions again, to find out an optimal way of covering such issues. 2. Are new ISINs issued following various types of event, such as corporate actions or change of securities form. The ANNA guidelines provide rules according to which ISINs are issued, replaced or deleted following corporate actions and other events. See website: www.anna-web.com 3. Are ISINs issued for unlisted and grey market securities. Most of the NNAs have signed a Letter of Understanding in which their obligation to cover all financial instruments in their jurisdiction is mentioned. However, we assume that the coverage is less than 100% in some areas. 4. At what stage ISINs are issued for new securities, i.e. does it depend on whether the security has stared trading. The answer to number 3 applies to this question as well. In addition, ANNA has published ISIN Quality Management rules, according to which the ISINs should be publish in a timely manner, i.e. according to the market requirements. 5. What are turnround times on requests for allocation of ISINs to new securities and minimum data required before an ISIN will be issued, i.e. is it the minimum data specified by ISO 6166 and ANNA Guidelines or is additional information required. The ANNA recommendations say that the NNAs should allocate ISINs within 24 hours following the request. The minimum of data necessary for allocation may depend on the individual NNAs and on the type of financial instrument involved. 6. Who should allocate ISINs to securities that are subject to Rule 144A and Regulation S, i.e. to avoid duplicate ISIN being allocated due to ambiguous interpretation. The ANNA WG2, under the leadership of Alain Duhamel, has agreed on a provisory rule, which should avoid duplicate allocation in the future. Discussions are going further in order to adopt a final solution. 7. Clarification of the circumstances where dummy ISINs should be used, i.e. those beginning with XA, XB, XC and XD. ISINs with such prefixes are not dummy ISINs but official ones. The prefixes have been assigned for use by the substitute agencies, i.e. Wertpapier-Mitteilungen, Standard & Poor's and Telekurs Financial, to cover the case where a NNA exists in the involved country, but is not able to allocate the ISIN for that specific instrument. 8. Please clarify the allocation rules about which Numbering Agencies should allocate ISINs to instruments issued by an overseas branch. The ANNA guideline number 1.9 regulates warrants issued by foreign branches of banks as follows: "Where such branches have no separate legal entity the ISIN-prefix will be the one of the headquarters country. If the branch is a separate legal entity, the country of the branch should be considered for the allocation and the prefix accordingly." The same principle applies to other financial instruments.