CUSIP
nine-character alphanumeric code that identifies a North American financial security for the purposes of facilitating clearing and settlement of trades
A CUSIP () is a nine-character numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies a North American financial security for the purposes of facilitating clearing and settlement of trades. All CUSIP identifiers are fungible, which means that a unique CUSIP identifier for each individual security stays the same, regardless of the exchange where the shares were purchased or venue on which the shares were traded. CUSIP was adopted as an American national standard by the Accredited Standards Committee X9 and is designated ANSI X9.6. CUSIP was re-approved as an ANSI standard in December 2020. The acronym derives from Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures.
The CUSIP system is owned by the American Bankers Association (ABA) and is operated by FactSet Research Systems Inc. The operating body, CUSIP Global Services (CGS), also serves as the national numbering agency (NNA) for North America, and the CUSIP serves as the National Securities Identification Number (NSIN) for products issued from both the United States and Canada. In its role as the NNA, CUSIP Global Services (CGS) also assigns all US-based International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs).
History
The origins of the CUSIP system go back to 1964, when the financial markets were dealing with what was known as the securities settlement paper crunch on Wall Street. At that time, increased trading volumes of equity securities, which were settled by the exchange of paper stock certificates, caused a backlog in clearing and settlement activities.
“CUSIP” enters the record as nine-character alphanumeric code that identifies a North American financial security for the purposes of facilitating clearing and settlement of trades. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what CUSIP, nine-character and alphanumeric can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“CUSIP” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, CUSIP, nine-character and alphanumeric provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1115740. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020 and 1964.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “CUSIP”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow CUSIP primary sources, CUSIP archive and CUSIP research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “CUSIP”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “CUSIP” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.