What is ISIN?
Each of the securities dematerialized in the NSDL/CDSL depository bears a distinctive ISIN – an identification number. International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) is a unique identification number for each security issued in any of the International Standards Organization (ISO) member countries in accordance with the ISIN standard (ISO 6166). ISO 6166 was developed for use in an international (cross-border) as well as domestic trades. ISIN is a 12-character long identification mark. It has three components – a pre-fix, a basic number and a check digit. The pre-fix is a two letter country code as stated under ISO 3166 The number comprises nine alphanumeric characters (letter and/or digits).The check digit at the end of the ISIN is computed according to the modulus 10 “Double-Add-Double”. It establishes that the ISIN is valid. Securities issued by the same company, issued at different times or carrying different rights, terms, and conditions are considered different securities for the purpose of allocating ISIN and are allotted distinct ISINs.In India, SEBI assigns ISIN to various publicly traded securities. Different ISINs allocated to the physical and dematerialized securities of the same issue. To illustrate, ISIN INE 475c 01 012 has the following break up: IN – India E- Company Last digit (2 in this example) – check digit First four digits 475c – Company Serial Number; 01- Equity (it can be mutual fund units, debt or Government securities); 01 – issue number The third digit (E in the above example) may be E, F, A, B or 9. Each one carries the following meaning: E – Company F- Mutual Fund Unit A- Central Government Security B – State Government Security 9 – Equity Shares with rights which are different from equity shares bearing INE number. Whenever dealing with ISIN number, it is important to pay special attention to the third digit.