Cusip to Make Cabre Database Free to Cusip Customers

Cusip Global Services (CGS), part of McGraw Hill Financial, is making its Cabre business entity identifier database freely available to Cusip customers as of December 1.

There are currently more than 335,000 global issuers, obligors and counterparties listed in the Cabre database. The more than 1,000 Cusip customers, financial firms, will going forward have free access to this data.

New York-based Matthew Bastian, director, market and business development for CGS, says CGS is focused on getting the data out to its customers. "We are hoping to solve an industry problem," he says.

There has been a growing focus on the need for a globally acceptable business entity identification system following the financial crisis. Cabre, created through a partnership between CGS and counterparty data vendor Avox, was designed to help firms deal with this challenge. The identifier is a 10-character code, offered on a portfolio basis, in bulk files or via a web-based service.

In recent months, market participants have noticed increased co-operation between regulators, and many expect regulators to ask firms to use one of the identification systems for transaction reporting.

According to CGS, the Cabre format can still be used if the universal entity identifier ends up being the Issuer & Guarantor Identifier, or an updated version of the Business Identifier Code. "We believe we are in a good position to contribute to some of these other standards," says Bastian.