The CUSIP Service Bureau (CSB) Master File database is now available through Standard & Poor’s SecurityMaster Services, a new web-based delivery platform designed to provide clients with near real-time access to a variety of securities data.
With Standard & Poor’s SecurityMaster Services platform, clients will be able to access data directly from the CSB database for use in their internal systems. As a modular solution, the service gives clients the ability to tailor a data search for a specific one-time need or develop customised, recurring data downloads.
Clients are given a URL with a user ID and password. This login gives them access to a database containing the CUSIP Master File data. A client’s developer creates APIs (application program interfaces) to extract the information needed. The APIs are customised based on the clients’ needs and can be one-off searches or recurring data downloads
Search results are retrieved in XML format, giving clients the ability to integrate data easily into their applications. Clients can search and retrieve information from the CUSIP database using 15 predefined parameters, including issuer name, security description, dated date, coupon, maturity date, domicile and last update.
“The use of xml tags and web services is starting to take hold in the financial industry. The SecurityMaster Services platform is S&P’s response to this growing need,” reckons Maria Latorraca, S&P’s CUSIP product director.
The new Standard & Poor’s SecurityMaster Services platform accesses issuer and issue level data for 6 million security identifiers and related descriptive data offered in the US and Canada from the CUSIP Master File.
“In the typical bulk delivery service, a client gets several thousand records of additions and changes. With this new web service, the client can control the information to be retrieved,” explains Latorraca. “For those clients who need bulk delivery, there may be speciality areas within an organisation that want to do customised searches from the platform. Also, the client does not have to store the entire CUSIP database at their site since information can be retrieved through the platform.”
Adds Jim Taylor, managing director for Standard & Poor’s CSB: “Clients now have efficient, direct access to the entire CUSIP database with the ability to download data using standardised XML tags. Making the CUSIP Master File data easier to access is part of our effort to streamline how we deliver key information to our clients.”
In addition to the CUSIP Master File bulk delivery and CUSIP Access, an internet look-up service, the new web portal interface gives clients the ability to fully customise both content and frequency to obtain new issue information as it becomes available.
There are three additional services planned for the Standard & Poor’s SecurityMaster Services platform this year, expanding its financial instrument coverage. The additional products are ISIDPlus, co-produced by Standard & Poor’s and Telekurs Financial, which is a cross-reference database of global security identifiers; the ANNA Service Bureau ISIN service, a repository of ISIN data sourced directly from the National Numbering Agencies; and the Syndicated Loan Service, which provides CUSIP numbers for private corporate bank loans. Together these will give clients “a single source for their financial instrument identifier needs”, Latorraca contends.
