Anna and ISO Move ISIN SLA Debate Forward

LONDON - The discussion over roles and responsibilities for ISIN registration authority between the Association of National Numbering Agencies (Anna) and the International Organization for Standards (ISO) for the ISO 6166 (ISIN) is moving forward after a meeting between the two parties, officials tell Inside Reference Data.

Anna has recently focused on preparing and agreeing wording for a service-level agreement (SLA) between Anna and the ISO, and the groups had a meeting in mid-July to discuss outstanding issues with the ISIN Registration Authority SLA.

In late July, the ISO provided Anna with a revised version of the draft Registration Authority Agreement based on the discussions. Anna will submit comments in September, when the board has had a chance to review the document with the necessary parties.

Anna chairman Dan Kuhnel says there are two or three main points Anna must analyze and seek clarity on. It shortly intends to deliver to the ISO a revised version they hope it will agree with. Mike Smith, senior adviser, technical policy at the ISO, also says there are still some issues to be resolved, but he is hopeful for a resolution.

Nourredine Yous, chairman of the ISO TC68/SC4 sub-committee, the ISO body dealing with standards for the securities industry, says he has followed the discussions and is confident the issue will close shortly, fulfilling the needs of both parties.

The SLA includes topics such as promotion of the ISO 6166 standard, maintaining associated guidelines and providing guidance to the national numbering agencies. "The Registration Authority Agreement will define and add clarity to established National Numbering Agency roles and responsibilities," says Kuhnel.

There has been an ongoing debate over license fees being charged by Standard & Poor's for databasing ISINs based on Cusip numbers, but commercial issues are not in the scope of the SLA between Anna and the ISO.

Kuhnel says it was determined by ISO SC4 Working Group 1 last year that an ISO standard is a technical document and the vending of value-added data associated with the ISIN record is a commercial issue between buyer and seller.

Meanwhile, it will be in the market's interest that the ISIN SLA issue is resolved quickly. Anna has previously said that once this matter is closed, it could potentially consider taking on registration authority responsibility for other standards. The financial short-name standard is one of the standards that has been mentioned in this context (Inside Reference Data, July 2008).