Malta Stock Exchange updates the FISN and CFI codes in line with new international standards

The Malta Stock Exchange as the National Numbering Agency for Malta responsible for issuing International Securities Identification Numbers, has adopted the new Classification of Financial Instruments standard (CFI – ISO 10962) and Financial Instrument Short Name standard (FISN — ISO 18774) as from 1 July.

As part of this global changeover the Exchange has throughout these past months converted all active ISINs to reflect the new CFI and FISN standards and will adopt these when allocating ISINs to new financial instruments.

Together with the ISIN which globally identifies financial instruments, the CFI is used globally to classify financial instruments through common descriptive terms that facilitate accurate asset-class groupings and eliminate the burdens of interpreting different national languages, standards and meth- ods of product description.

The FISN, which will now be issued with the ISIN for the first time, is a human-readable identification code, which was developed to provide a uniform approach to financial instrument short names and descriptions enabling global consistency, increased efficiency and reducing operational risk in the communication between all stakeholders.

The global adoption of the ISIN as an international common stan- dard for identifying securities, according to ISO Standard 6166, covers more than 120 nations and ensures that no matter where a security was first issued, its ISIN enables it to be recognized and traded between buyers and sellers virtually anywhere in the world. The use of standard identifiers make the financial world a more efficient, safer and more stable environment for investors and the financial institutions that serve them.

The ISIN application forms that are available for download through the NNA’s section on the Exchange’s website at www. borzamalta. com. mt/ nna shall also be updated to reflect these revised standards. The new CFI and FISN codes for all valid ISINs may also be found on the Exchange’s official website.

Any queries about ISINs may be addressed to Cliff Pace, Head - Compliance and Market Operations Unit.