If you are seeking information on any security, precisely a stock or a bond, a CUSIP number known as a unique number can reduce the hard work of searching for any security which is pronounced as Q-SIP.

CUSIP stands for Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures.

CUSIP was primarily invented to identify U.S and Canadian stocks, bonds, and mutual funds of both public and private companies. CUSIP is largely operated by S&P Global.

Some common examples of CUSIP for a bond issuer include

Microsoft- 594918AD6

Johnson & Johnson- 478160AF1

Walmart- 931142103

CUSIP numbers are bifurcated in the following manner:

The first 6 characters identify the unique name followed by the next 2 characters identifying the type of instrument and the last character is an automatically generated check digit.

CUSIP was formed in 1968 by American Bankers Association in order to find an appropriate system to identify securities to improve operating efficiency across the industry.

This system displays descriptive information about various securities making it easy to track them across various phases and analyses. CUSIP covers a wide range of financial instruments.

CUSIP is generally printed on the documents, offer documents, security brokers, websites of issuing companies, or by connecting the relationship department of the issuing entity in case of the owned securities.

Some key benefits of CUSIP are:

Being a unique number makes it easy for an investor to identify and track instruments like bonds, stocks, funds, etc. leading to correct documentation of trades, settlement, and clearance.

Updates in regards to yield and performance of a security can be obtained with the help of the CUSIP number

Issuers map the securities to the respective investors making it easy to track the dividend and interest payments.

CUSIP and ISIN are two world-known checkpoints for securities and are highly crucial for the trade of securities but differ from each other.

ISIN vs CUSIP

CUSIP guides in the smooth execution of trades, settlements, and interest payouts for both investor and issuer.