Standards
Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI)
An open, twelve-character identifier for financial instruments and related market contexts.
- Kind
- Identifiers
- Steward
- Object Management Group (OMG); Bloomberg as registration authority
- Official source
- https://www.openfigi.com/about/overview
What it describes
FIGI is an Object Management Group standard for identifying financial instruments. Bloomberg acts as its registration authority, and OpenFIGI publishes identifier mappings and associated metadata. FIGI can connect vendor and market identifiers where symbols alone are ambiguous. The precise level represented by a FIGI matters: instrument, composite, and share-class identifiers answer different questions and should remain distinct in a record.
A FIGI does not itself state the economic terms, current listing status, or legal issuer of a security. Its usefulness depends on matching the correct identifier level and retaining the mapping source. A system comparing feeds should record both the input symbology and the resolved FIGI, including when the mapping was observed, so later changes in metadata can be reviewed.
Structure
12 alphanumeric characters; the final character is a check digit.
Useful for
- Map vendor symbologies to a shared identifier.
- Separate instrument and market-context references.
- Reconcile instrument records across feeds.
Limits
- Identifier level must be checked.
- Does not supply instrument terms by itself.
- A mapping can change as reference data is revised.
How it is used in practice
Market data arrives in many symbologies. One vendor keys instruments by ticker and exchange, another by a proprietary code, a third by ISIN. FIGI exists so that these vocabularies can be mapped to one open identifier, and the OpenFIGI service publishes a mapping interface that accepts an identifier of one kind and returns the FIGI records that correspond to it. The identifier is issued once and not reused; if the instrument ceases to exist, its FIGI is retired but remains resolvable.
FIGI also distinguishes levels. A single security can have an identifier for the instrument as listed on one venue, a composite identifier covering the instrument across the venues of a country, and a share-class identifier covering the class across all of them. Which level a record carries decides which questions it can answer. A position held in a share class and a price quoted on one venue are not the same object, and a join that ignores the level will quietly mix them.
A worked example
Two feeds describe Halden Therapeutics AG (fictional) shares. Feed one gives a ticker and a venue code. Feed two gives a vendor-specific identifier. An analyst submits both to a mapping service and obtains a FIGI for each. If the two FIGIs are identical, the feeds describe the same listing. If they differ but share a composite FIGI, the feeds describe the same security as listed on different venues, and a price comparison between them needs a stated rule about which venue governs. If they differ at every level, the feeds are about different securities even though the names look alike.
The mapping result is itself an observation. The record keeps the input symbology, the FIGI returned, the level of each, and the date of the lookup. When a later lookup returns a different mapping, the earlier row is not overwritten: the change is a new observation with its own date, and any value that rested on the earlier mapping can be traced and reviewed.
Evaluating a claim that rests on a FIGI
Start by naming the level the claim needs, then check that the FIGI is at that level. Many apparent mismatches between datasets are level mismatches: one side recorded the listing, the other the share class. Next, check the freshness of the mapping. Symbologies change after corporate actions, and a FIGI returned today for an old ticker may refer to a different listing than the ticker did when the file was created. Keep the lookup date and treat a mapping as evidence about the identifier at that time.
A FIGI states nothing about the issuer's legal identity, the terms of the security or its regulatory status. A claim about any of those needs its own source. Because the standard is open and the mapping service is free to query, it is a practical bridge between proprietary vocabularies; the care lies in recording what was mapped to what, and when, rather than in the identifier itself.
Confusions to avoid
FIGI is sometimes presented as a replacement for ISIN. They solve different problems. The ISIN is assigned by national numbering agencies at issuance and identifies an issue. A FIGI is assigned through a registration authority to instruments, including many that have no ISIN, such as certain derivatives, loans and pairs on exchanges, and it also distinguishes trading venues. Holding both, with the mapping between them dated and sourced, gives a record that can answer both what was issued and where it traded.
Another confusion is between the openness of the identifier and the openness of everything around it. The identifier and its mapping interface are open, but the attached descriptive data comes from the registration authority and may change, and vendors enrich it with proprietary fields. A record should say which fields came from the open mapping and which from elsewhere, so that a later user knows what can be shared further.
Questions a reviewer can ask
Which level of FIGI is in the record: instrument, composite or share class? What input identifier was mapped, and under which symbology? When was the mapping made, and has it been rerun since? Does the claim need the venue, or only the security? Where the mapping returned several candidates, what rule chose one? If the FIGI was supplied by a vendor, was it confirmed against the open mapping, and what differences were found?
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Enquiry
Which of your sources carry Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI)?
Tell us which sources carry it, which key the same entity some other way and who may read which. We reply with whether and how a first record would use this identifier.
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