ISO/TR 21797 gives an overview of existing and currently used financial instrument identifiers.
ISO/TR 21797 shows which instrument identifiers, ticker symbols, and proprietary codes are assigned via a standardized scheme to instruments of all asset classes. ISO/TR 21797 focuses on providing an overview of the landscape and not on evaluating the schemes. Several aspects of the detailed trade cycle (a few examples being book building/primary, order entry management, execution management, and trade confirmation matching) are excluded as their complexity would reduce the readability of the overview. Similarly, the level of complexity involved in properly representing the shifting perspectives of what is considered a financial instrument, based on a particular function being performed, is excluded.
ISO/TR 21797 on financial instruments is useful for:
The identification of financial instruments is a core component for properly functioning financial markets. Both regulatory and operational issues influence the need for standard identifiers for financial instruments. ISO/TR 21797 helps in identification as it is central to enabling increasingly complex markets, from individual firms managing data internally to communication between multiple parties concerning an asset, to regulatory oversight and overall transparency.
Regulation drives a significant amount of adoption and change, while innovation still comes from niche areas of the financial industry. Potential frictions resulting from conflicting mandates by different or overlapping jurisdictions are addressed by bodies trying to harmonize requirements. A major theme is the harmonization efforts across asset classes and jurisdictions. This is occurring through specific requirements for the use of specific standards, as well as guiding principles on how those standards should be utilized.
ISO/TR 21797 results from a study of identifiers of financial instruments across asset classes, which extends beyond basic financial instruments and identifiers.
ISO/TR 21797 gives an overview that represents an inventory of the current international, national, proprietary, and/or de facto standards in use globally and encompasses a broad constituency across the entire instrument life cycle.
Understanding the universe of ISO/TR 21797 can lead to further investigation and understanding of where, when, and why specific standards are used. It can lead to efforts to either harmonize, where appropriate, or identify at what points interoperability is best achieved.ISO/TR 21797