International securities identification number (ISIN) is used by member countries of International Standards Organization (ISO). The purpose of ISIN is to identify each security issued in any of the member countries. The financial instruments that can be assigned International securities identification number (ISIN), includes shares, scrips, stocks, bonds, debentures, mutual fund units etc.,The standard followed is ISO6166, which can be used for both domestic as well as International trades. In India, NSDL (National Securities Depositories Limited) assigns International securities identification number (ISIN) to various securities. If securities are getting admitted in CDSL, then ISIN is assigned after receiving request from CDSL. For G-sec (Government Securities, Reserve Bank of India allots International securities identification number (ISIN)
International securities identification number (ISIN)
International securities identification number (ISIN) is a 12 character long code, first two characters indicates Country Code as per ISO3166 (For India it is IN).
Third letter indicates type of security which can be E, A, F, B or 9 (E – Company, A – Central Government Security, B- State Government Security, F- Mutual Fund Unit and 9 represents Equity shares having different rights than those represented by INE number.)
In the remaining 9 digits last digit is check suffix suing Double Add Double method to check the validity of the International securities identification number (ISIN)
In the above IN represents country code India, E- Company Type, 002A Company Serial Number (Reliance), next two letters 01 represent equity and next two 01 represents issue number and last number 8 represents check suffix to check the validity of ISIN. (Above number is for reliance equity shares). Third digit need to pay more attention as it denotes the type of security with rights associated with it. A company can have more than one International securities identification number (ISIN) assigned as distinct ISIN is allotted for instruments at various times, with various rights or with various terms and conditions.
You can search any International securities identification number (ISIN) by visiting NSDL Website which assigns these numbers in India. By typing even a part of company name you can retrieve details like ISIN number, registars/Issuer and address of the registar for demat.
Any company’s physical securities can be dematerialised only if the company makes an agreement with any of the depositories in India. At present NSDL and CDSL are two depositories operating in India.