The ISIN Code provides a uniform structure for a universal code that identifies securities such as stocks or bonds.
The ISIN code consists of a total of 12 characters as follows:
1) The first two characters are taken up by the alpha-2 country code as issued in accordance with the international standard ISO 3166 of the country were the issuer of securities is legally registered or in which it has legal domicile. In case of depositary receipts such as ADR´s, the country code is that of the organization who issued the receipt instead of the one who issued the underlying security.
2) The next nine characters are taken up by the local number of the security concerned. Where the national number consists of fewer than nine characters, zeros are inserted in front of the number so that the full nine spaces are used. The first 6 positions are filled according and following the same structure used for the attribution of the Issuer Entity's code followed by an alpha-numeric-three characters. The last three characters identifies itself the category of the security such as Common or Preferred Shares, Classes and Commercial Papers.
3) The final character is a check digit computed according to the modulus 10 "Doubled add Doubled" formula.
In other words, of no interest unless you're trading in markets outside the US.
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