Financial Instrument Global Identifier
| Company type | Open standard |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services, Data management |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founder | Bloomberg L.P. |
Area served | Global financial markets |
Key people | Bloomberg L.P. (Registration Authority and Certified Provider) |
| Products | Unique identifiers for financial instruments |
| Owner | Object Management Group (standard), Bloomberg L.P. (registration authority) |
| Website | www |
The Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI), previously known as the Bloomberg Global Identifier (BBGID), represents an open standard unique code assigned to a diverse array of financial instruments. These include equities, options, derivatives, futures contracts, bonds, municipal securities, currencies, and mortgage-related products.
History
Bloomberg introduced its Open Symbology system ("BSYM") in 2009 as a method to uniquely identify financial instruments across various asset categories.
By 2014, the original Bloomberg Global Identifier (BBGID) was officially rebranded as the Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI), following a partnership between Bloomberg and the Object Management Group (OMG).
In September 2015, FIGI achieved formal "approved status" from the OMG Architecture Board, establishing it as a recognized industry standard.
Adoption
FIGIs have been incorporated into market data streams for numerous exchanges, including but not limited to:
- Ace Commodity Exchange (ACE)
- Banja Luka Stock Exchange
- Bermuda Stock Exchange
- Bucharest Stock Exchange
- Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE), formerly known as Canadian National Stock Exchange (CNSX)
- Euro-TLX
- Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
- FTSE Real-Time Index (FTSE)
- Hi-MTF Multilateral Trading Facilities (Hi-MTF)
- Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (ICDX)
- Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE)
- Mercari
- Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX)
- National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX)
- National Stock Exchange of India (NSE)
- New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
- OneChicago - ONE Chicago Stock Exchange
- Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE)
- PURE Canadian Stock Exchange
- Quote MTF
- SIM Venture Securities Exchange (SIM VSE)
- The Stock Exchange of Mauritius
Regulatory bodies and standards frameworks that utilize FIGIs include:
Additional notable adoption
- In March 2010, NYSE Euronext started distributing BBGIDs alongside their proprietary security identifiers on a global scale.
- Also in March 2010, FINRA approved BBGIDs for uniquely identifying securities reported under the SEC’s TRACE program.
- June 2011 marked ACE Commodity Exchange in India as the first Asian exchange to implement FIGIs.
- April 2012 saw adoption by the Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (ICDX).
- In September 2014, the Object Management Group formally adopted the Financial Instrument Global Identifier standard, ensuring compatibility with BBGIDs.
- November 2014 brought integration of Bloomberg Open Symbology by SIX Financial Information within its Valordata and Market Data Feeds.
- May 2014 featured Nasdaq OMX Group incorporating FIGIs into Nasdaq Last Sale Plus for real-time trade reporting.
- December 2014 included RIMES Technologies adopting FIGI.
- October 2014 marked official recognition of FIGI as a global identifier standard by OMG.
- In May 2020, Brazil’s Association of Technical Standards organization (ABNT) granted approval for FIGI.
- December 2020 saw OMG certify Kaiko as a secondary provider of FIGIs.
- July 2021 confirmed FIGI’s approval as a US standard by X9.
- October 2021 involved Kaiko issuing the first FIGIs for crypto assets, broadening coverage on OpenFIGI.com.
- June 2022 witnessed amendments to SEC Form 13F allowing inclusion of FIGIs in filings.
- In August 2024, US FSOC Agencies proposed regulations incorporating FIGI as an open standard for regulatory reporting under the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA) of 2022.
Description
The FIGI framework is established and protected by the Object Management Group, with Bloomberg L.P. acting as both the Registration Authority and the Certified Provider of this standard. Over 300 million distinct securities spanning various financial market asset classes have been assigned FIGIs. This identifier consists of a 12-character alphanumeric sequence that delivers a consistent, unique global reference without embedding any instrument-specific attributes. Once allocated, a FIGI remains fixed and is never reassigned.
Each FIGI distinctly identifies a security as well as the specific exchange on which it is traded. Composite FIGIs aggregate securities across multiple related exchanges. For instance, Apple Inc. common shares are listed on 14 different exchanges within the United States, each with its own unique FIGI, alongside a composite FIGI that covers all U.S. exchange listings.
Equity Levels of Assignment
- Global Share Class Level
- Country Composite Level
- Exchange/Venue Level
FIGI Structure
| B | B | G | 0 | 0 | 0 | B | L | N | N | V | 0 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
A FIGI is composed of three segments: a two-letter prefix, followed by a 'G' in the third position; an eight-character alphanumeric string excluding vowels "A", "E", "I", "O", and "U"; and a final single-digit check number.
This encoding scheme supports more than 852 billion unique identifiers under the initial BBG prefix and extends to over 330 trillion possible combinations overall.
Structural Rules
FIGIs utilize a limited character set from ISO 8859-1:
- All uppercase consonants (including Y)
- Numerals 0 through 9
The format for the twelve characters follows these guidelines:
- Positions 1 and 2: any uppercase consonant pair except BS, BM, GG, GB, GH, KY, VG to prevent conflicts with ISIN codes
- Position 3: fixed uppercase 'G' representing "global"
- Positions 4 to 11: any combination of uppercase consonants or digits from 0 to 9
- Position 12: check digit (0–9), derived using an algorithm that converts letters to numbers, doubles every second digit from right to left, sums all digits, then subtracts from the next highest multiple of ten
This check digit calculation minimizes validation clashes with other financial instrument identification systems.
Issuance
Bloomberg L.P. publishes unique FIGIs, which can be searched and downloaded through the Bloomberg OpenFIGI platform. Once assigned, FIGIs are permanent identifiers that do not change due to corporate actions and are never reused. Both bulk data access and individual lookup services are accessible to all users without requiring any affiliation with Bloomberg.
FIGIs are systematically assigned to distinct financial instruments. If an instrument lacks a FIGI, requests for assignment may be submitted in line with established procedures.
Additionally, FIGIs can often be linked to other identifiers such as equity and index option ticker symbols.
License
FIGIs along with their related metadata are distributed freely into the public domain, with no commercial limitations. The Open Management Group (OMG) standard operates under the terms of the Open Source MIT License.