davidam, thinking that after 15 years of trading you'd know that CUSIP numbers are not issued by the SEC. In fact the SEC has not and will not have anything to with this stock since the stock of WWCD were never registered with the SEC and hence the same holds for GBDX.
Oh btw, CUSIP numbers are issed but S&P under contract with the American Banker's Association. Here's some reading to further your education.
Background to the development of the CUSIP numbering system
In 1962, after many informal discussions with members of the financial community, the NewYork Clearing House Association established a Securities Procedures Committee to study the question of developing a standard method of identifying securities. This Committee concluded that a uniform securities identification system was feasible and timely and because of the magnitude of the problems to be solved and their far-reaching implications the development of the system should involve the cooperation and support of the entire financial community.
The Clearing House approached The American Bankers Association's Department of Automation to develop the system. In July 1964, the A.B.A.'s Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures (CUSIP) was created under the chairmanship of John L. Gibbons, Chairman of the Trust Committee of Chemical Bank New York Trust Company. The main goals of the CUSIP Committee were to develop specifications for a uniform security identification system, for devising a format for imprinting the identification number on the certificate in man/machine readable type font, and to establish an agency to administer the identification system according to specifications. The CUSIP Committee appointed three subcommittees: The Technical Subcommittee to develop specifications, and Legal and Agency Subcommittees to implement the system.
Who Controls the CUSIP numbering system?
The CUSIP Board of Trustees controls the operation of the CUSIP numbering system. Through the work of the CUSIP Legal and Agency Subcommittees, the CUSIP service functions were outlined and Standard & Poor's was awarded the contract to function as the CUSIP Service Bureau, the operational arm of the system, which is responsible among other functions for the compilation and publication of the CUSIP Directory.
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer". F Zappa
