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Question: I noticed a stock I own has something called a CUSIP. What is that?

Ben

Answer:

Dear Ben,

You're very observant!

There are two items involved in your question: CUSIP and the CUSIP number. Let's start with CUSIP.

(1) CUSIP stands for Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures.

(2) The CUSIP number identifies stocks of all registered U.S. and Canadian companies, U.S. government and municipal bonds and many other investments.

Each CUSIP number consists of 9 unique characters, including a combination of letters and numbers. It serves to identify a company (in the case of a stock) or the issuer (in the case of a bond) and the type of security.

The CUSIP number for International Business Machines, for instance, is: IBM-45920010.

In the case of foreign securities, a similar ID system is used, with a letter representing the country. For example:

A = Austria
B = Belgium
V = Africa
W = Sweden
Y = Asia

Similar ID numbers are assigned to bank CDs, Unit Trusts, ADRs and other classes of securities.

The CUSIP system is owned by the American Bankers Association and is operated by Standard & Poor's.

Its purpose is to make clearing operations accurate and efficient. And, as you may have noticed, the CUSIP number is used when a brokerage firm, such as BUYandHOLD, records a buy and sell order.

For More Information Everything you ever wanted to know about CUSIP, including its history, is explained at: www.cusip.com.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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