how a valoren number works
a valoren number is a numeric code that intrinsically has no meaning when a new valoren is needed the next one from the list is simply allocated an instrument s number indicates nothing about the instrument itself market data firms and other financial institutions throughout europe typically refer to swiss companies and or store trade data on these companies using valoren numbers as a means of security identification unlike isins or cusips valoren numbers have no data implanted in the numbers swiss valoren numbers are issued by six financial information a subsidiary of six group a multinational financial data vendor based in zurich switzerland the company also has offices in over 20 countries the company provides market data which it gathers from the world s major trading venues directly and in real time its database has structured and encoded securities administration data for more than 20 million financial instruments six financial information was originally called telekurs in 1996 the firm was restructured into a holding company and it launched an expansion of its product range in 2007 telekurs acquired part of the fininfo group in 2008 the telekurs group merged with swx group sis swiss financial services group and sega intersettle to form six group telekurs financial was renamed to six telekurs and became the financial information division of six group on april 23 2012 the use of the telekurs name was phased out a valoren number can be used for a number of purposes in identifying a financial instrument globally a valoren number is allocated for any type of financial instrument which meets the allocation rules it can be used in conjunction with the market identifier code mic and the currency code to uniquely identify a traded instrument it can also be used in transaction reporting and for position keeping in switzerland and liechtenstein the valoren number is the main identifier in the swiss value chain it is used as the main identifier by financial institutions throughout the region and beyond valoren numbers for derivatives may be reused after the derivative expires 