OMG Chooses Bloomberg Symbology For Spec

The Object Management Group (OMG), a non-profit standards consortium, is putting forward a Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI) specification based on Bloomberg's Open Symbology for securities identification.

OMG is inviting public comment on FIGI through May 19. OMG's Architecture Board plans to vote on a completed FIGI specification in December.

By using Bloomberg's Open Symbology as a basis for FIGI, those using the specification will get an open standard that is more accessible than similar ones that are proprietary, according to Peter Warms, global data manager at Bloomberg. "The FIGI standards that OMG would be proceeding with could certainly limit the appeal of other proprietary identifiers," he says.

With identification efforts and regulatory mandates including the legal entity identifier (LEI), Fatca and Basel III, underway, an open standard such as Bloomberg's Open Symbology is also more attractive as a result, according to Warms. "As a structure approved by the OMG, our proposal will have more credibility as a possible solution for the forthcoming regulation," he said.

With an endorsement from the OMG, Open Symbology may also gain credibility for the US Office of Financial Research, a unit of the US Treasury which began the drive of recent years to implement the LEI and is also looking at identification systems at the instrument level for regulatory reporting.

"The biggest banks are going to be asked to figure out reporting to the government," says Warms. "In their reports, they will have to identify securities and also identify how securities interact with issuers or entities that they correspond to. There's a need for an open system to identify securities. We hope FIGI can become that standard."