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
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.