CUSIP Global Services (CGS) and the American Bankers Association (ABA) today reaffirmed that CUSIP operations will be unaffected by S&P Global's commitment to divest CGS as a condition for European Commission approval of its proposed merger with IHS Markit.
"The dedicated, professional team at CGS will continue to deliver the world-class service, reliability and innovation the global securities market has come to expect of CUSIP for more than 50 years," said Scott Preiss, managing director and global head of CUSIP Global Services. "CUSIP operations will remain unchanged, and we look forward to supporting market participants in every way."
ABA launched the CUSIP system with CGS in 1968 to improve operating efficiencies across the industry by developing a standard method of identifying securities. Since then, CUSIP has been widely recognized as the gold standard identifier for securities. To date, more than 62.8 million CUSIP identifiers have been assigned to financial instruments, irrespective of trading venue, across a broad range of asset classes – with more than 9 million in active use today. CGS manages the CUSIP system on behalf of the ABA.
"For more than 50 years, the American Bankers Association and S&P Global have worked together as partners to successfully operate the CUSIP system," said Rob Nichols, ABA president and CEO. "We will continue to work together to find a suitable buyer for CUSIP Global Services that is capable of onboarding the current staff and operations of CGS and committed to seamlessly delivering CUSIP's trusted service and reliability. We look forward to sharing more on CUSIP's bright future in the days ahead."