OMG Adopts FIGI Standard

Previously known as Bloomberg Global Identifier (BBGID), FIGI was given approved status by the OMS Architecture Board in September.

According to a statement by Bloomberg, the financial instrument identifier provides a universal system for identifying and describing financial instruments previously lacking when traders, investors and brokers had to translate between multiple proprietary identifier formats to determine key features of an instrument.

"The OMG recently released the FIGI as an industry standard for use by industry practitioners in the capital markets, which lacks a universal system for identifying and describing financial instruments," said Richard Soley, CEO of OMG, in the statement.

The "game-changing" standard, as Soley called it, ties together disparate and fragmented symbologies, eliminates redundant mapping processes, streamlines the trade workflow and reduces operational risk. FIGI has issued 280 million identifiers to date. OMG believes that this open-source standard will be useful for instruments lacking a standard identifier, such as loans, over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, commodities and other asset classes.

FIGI can now be used for instrument identification in all ISO 20022-related messaging, including over the SWIFT network. Virtus and US Bank have also adopted FIGI for identifying syndicated loans, which is an asset class that has historically been neglected by alternative symbologies.

In the statement, Bloomberg said that they plan to launch an online utility next year where FIGI users can submit a request for new identifiers as new issues come to market. The site will also provide search and mapping capabilities for existing identifiers in the FIGI library.