CUSIP Global Services (CGS), a provider of securities identifiers, has reached an agreement with the European Commission (EC) to create and distribute a new data feed of US ISINs tailored specifically to the needs of certain market participants domiciled in the European Economic Area (EEA). The agreement follows a formal EC investigation of how CGS licenses and charges financial institutions for use of the US ISIN identifier within the EEA during which the EC made no findings of infringement.
“We welcome the EC’s decision to allow CGS to market a new US ISIN service designed for market participants in the EEA who have unique, regional requirements and therefore require less comprehensive security identifier data than has been previously made available,” said Jim Taylor, global head, CUSIP Global Services. “CUSIP Global Services is continually looking at market needs and for ways to better address local investor requirements.”
CGS will offer the new feed, called the US ISIN Basic Service, within the next five months on a cost-recovery basis for participants taking it directly from CGS. The feed will contain limited descriptive data for certain publicly traded US securities. If a market data vendor chooses to integrate the new feed on behalf of its EEA customers, the end customers of that vendor could use the ISIN data from the feed, with some reasonable restrictions, without incurring any additional fees from CGS.
(JDC)