S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

My name is Matt Bastian. I'm a Senior Director with CUSIP Global Services. I will be your moderator and one of the presenters today. The standard disclaimer is the CUSIP system is owned by the American Bankers Association and operated on their behalf by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Joining me today are Gerard Faulkner, our Director of Operations; and Brian Sweeney, one of our senior managers on the product team. We do recognize that everyone is probably overwhelmed with virtual events and suffering some Zoom fatigue a year-plus into the pandemic. So we really appreciate your time today. First, some housekeeping items. This webinar is designed to be interactive. The console you're looking at can be completely customized. You can resize or move any of the windows you have open. And at the bottom of the page, there are a number of widgets you can access. [Operator Instructions] Please note this webinar is being recorded, and an on-demand version will be sent to you by the end of the week. If you do experience any technical difficulties, please visit the webinar help guide. This is the widget with the question mark on it, and it covers most common technical problems, or you can use the Q&A widget to speak to the team here. And then finally, at the end of the webinar, you'll be routed to a survey form. We're always keen to hear feedback. So please take a moment to complete this when it comes up, as it does help us to improve future presentations. So with that, here's our agenda for today. I will take it up to processes and procedures before handing off to Gerard, and then Brian will cover data distribution and talk about some of our products and services, and then I will return for the last 2 sections. So to set the stage, let's go back to 1964. The Beatles were invading our living rooms on the Ed Sullivan Show. You can see the price for stamps and new cars and the hot new toy at the time was GI Joe, or Action Man for the British youth of the era. And here's a snapshot of the markets at the time. Federal spending and debt levels seem almost quaint by today's standards. I think $316 billion is the loose change in the Fed's couch these days. And at the time, increased trading volumes on the exchange and the manual transfer of stock certificates were grinding things to a halt. The exchange was closing early just to allow the back office to catch up, and it became clear that the system was ripe for modernization. So to address the problem, the New York Clearinghouse Association asked the ABA to come up with a system that would uniquely identify each security, be machine readable and also be located in a uniform position on each certificate. Thus the Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures was born. And 4 years later, they unveiled their work in the form of the first directory. The SEC Chairman at the time congratulated everyone for their efforts. And we also note that over the years, to the extent the CUSIP was embraced within certain rules and regs, it was a recognition of its success and value. We sometimes hear the misconception that the reverse is true. And the next 2 slides, just a sampling of our growth and expansion over the years as more regulators and market authorities recognized the value of CUSIP. We've never rested on our laurels, if you will. And in 1989, we added an international variance, the CUSIP International Numbering System, or CINS. And that growth has included new asset classes, products and services, 1-hour requests and TBA mortgages being just 2 examples. And one of the more recent offerings is a near real-time delivery of CGS data, and Brian will get into that more in his section. And here's where we stand today. We have celebrated our 50th Anniversary as of late 2018. CUSIP is the numbering system for the U.S. and Canada, and we serve as the numbering agency for over 35 other markets, mostly throughout the Caribbean and Americas. And Gerard will talk a little bit about that numbering agents and constructs in his portion. This is our exclusive focus. We aren't an exchange or central securities depository, like other numbering agencies. And also, we're very much a firewall business within S&P Global to respect that external ownership in the ABA. And also, we don't operate in a vacuum. We have an industry-appointed Board of Trustees that provides insight and guidance, and that insight and guidance steers all of that growth you saw a couple of slides earlier. One key aspect of S&P's continued stewardship of the CUSIP franchise has been sustained reinvestment over the years. Whether it's the new asset classes or instruments that suffer for a lack of a standard or new initiatives like linking existing codes together, S&P has been unwavering in its support of the CUSIP franchise. We pioneered the role of the registration agent within the global LEI system when we teamed with the local GMEI utility to provide one-stop shopping. So market participants can get their LEI and securities identifiers through one interface, and to date we've registered about 14,700 LEIs, mostly funds and municipal issuers through that process. And today, there isn't much we don't cover. And if you add our participation in the Derivatives Service Bureau, that includes OTC derivatives as well. The DSB is an engine to create ISINs for OTC derivatives, thus helping market participants meet certain regulatory reporting requirements, mainly in Europe. And then finally is the -- final part of the overview of CGS is we don't operate in a vacuum, and we don't do it alone. We have a number of critical partners and agents that make up a broader capital markets infrastructure. So whether it's DTCC or market authorities or trade associations, sometimes regional exchanges, we do have a rich tradition of establishing strategic partnerships to bring the precision and reliability of what we do to the widest swath of the market possible. And with that, I will hand it over to Gerard. Gerard?

Yes. Thank you, Matt, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. So I'll be covering the CUSIP assignment process and procedure, and then we'll go over the various structures of the different identifiers, the CUSIP and also as well as global identifiers relating to securities. So on this slide, this shows the types of offerings that are eligible for the domestic CUSIP. On the equity side, any public offering, like an IPO by a U.S. or a Canadian issuer, gets a CUSIP, and then any private offering by any issuer, for example, a 144A or Regulation D, also receives a CUSIP. And also ADRs and GDRs, since they're actually issued the receipts by a U.S. bank, so they also get CUSIPs. Then on the debt side, any issuer with a public or private debt offering, you can be SEC registered or a private offering, those offerings are also assigned CUSIPs as well. Then moving, as Matt touched upon, we also provide what's called a CINS, the CUSIP International number. This is mainly for offerings outside the United States or by a non-U.S. or Canadian issuer. So for example, on the private side, if it's a Regulation S offering, it receives a CINS. If it's a non-U.S., non-Canadian issuer with a public offering, for example, by an entity, for example, domiciled in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda or BVI, they would also receive a CINS. Spotify, based in Luxembourg, a few years ago started listing, and they received a CINS number as an example. And then on the debt side, any debt offered outside the U.S. and Canada. So generally, Regulation S offerings are assigned CINS numbers. Just some general procedures in regards to CUSIP assignment is generally a request is submitted to us through one of our online application forms found on the CUSIP website, depending on the type of offering. We also provide various types of electronic platforms. With the online application form, the typical turnaround, about half of the requests are requested by Express Service, in which the CUSIPs can be turned around within 1 hour. And then if it's not express, it's regular, and typically by the following morning we would have a CUSIP assigned. We also have various types of electronic platforms, which frequent requesters that apply to us on a daily basis can also use to even further expedite and streamline the process. We have REACH for the broker-dealers that request [ bank ] certificates of deposits or retail CDs. And then on the municipal side, we make use of First, which underwriters, through the IPO book-running system, as they're setting up a new deal, they can also apply for a CUSIP number as well. We assign CUSIPs, as mentioned before, to either public or private offerings on a presale, pretrade basis. And also as far as corporate actions for a corporate name change, a merger or a reorg, that may also require a new CUSIP number. This screen here just shows the basic workflow as far as the CUSIP request and assignment process. Generally, it is the underwriter. It's a self-registration process, where they would submit the CUSIP request. It's on a pretrade, presale basis, and they would typically submit a preliminary offering document, either the Red Herring or the preliminary private placement memorandum. So we're getting the request from the primary parties involved with the primary source documentation. And we also do submit -- receive requests on the municipal side from the financial adviser. It can also be from counsel, and there are times where the issuer itself may also request the CUSIP number. So from that offering documentation, we extract all the pertinent information and data to uniquely assign the CUSIP. We cover more than 60 data elements; for a typical instrument type, that could be about 20 to 25 data elements. We have a very seasoned staff where they can look through the offering document. Securities are a lot more complicated than they used to be. But with the seasoned staff, they can still maintain that 1-hour turnaround for CUSIP requests. Another role that's important for CUSIP as the numbering agency is the dissemination of the newly assigned CUSIPs and the data relating to that offering. So that's disseminated to the various electronic products that Brian will speak to in more detail. In addition to the CUSIP service, we also contribute to the legal entity identifier as well as disseminating the information to the ANNA Service Bureau, and an electronic e-mail confirmation is sent back to the requester at the time of assignment. On the application form, in addition to the CUSIP, there also is the option to request the legal entity identifier, and we'll get into that in more detail. So this is just going over the structure of some of the various identifiers, starting with the CUSIP. The CUSIP, it's not a randomly assigned identifier. There is a structure and a hierarchy involved. The CUSIP number consists of 9 characters. The first 6 characters refers to the issuer base number, and that is assigned based on the alphanumeric sequencing on the CUSIP system. An issuer could have multiple CUSIP numbers assigned; for example, for our government agency or a municipal issuer with very high-volume issuance, they could typically have multiple base numbers on the -- and then also for various types of programs. For example, medium-term notes or commercial paper, separate CUSIP issuer numbers are assigned for the issuer. And then banks with their structured products, especially equity derivatives, we can quickly use up base numbers. The next 2 characters in the seventh and eighth position is the issue number. And again, there's structure involved with that as well. All equity securities will have 2 numeric characters in that position, and on the debt side, it could have either 2 alpha characters or a combination of alphanumeric. For equity there are about 79 available CUSIPs, and then on the debt side about 900 CUSIPs. And then the ninth and final position is the check digit, which is a mathematical formula based on the 8 characters in the CUSIP number. And so here is an example for amazon.com with their unique CUSIP. And then CUSIP, as the responsible numbering agency, we also assign the corresponding ISIN, and we'll get into more detail about that structure. The CINS number, that started in 1989 with the growth of global trading and issuance. The CINS is pretty much the same format as the 9-character CUSIP. It is part of the CUSIP system. And again, CINS is assigned to non-U.S., non-Canadian issuers and for offerings outside the U.S. So the first 6 positions, again, it's the issuer's base number. The distinguishing feature with the CINS is that the first position starts with an alpha character that designates either the country or the region where the issuer is legally organized or incorporated. And then the seventh and eighth position is similar to the CUSIP, uniquely identifying the security along with a check digit, and here is the example of a CINS for BT Group plc. Just some other processes and procedures. Generally, CUSIPs are not reused. So if a security matures or is suspended, we no longer would reuse that CUSIP. The one exception is with discount commercial paper and the agency discount notes, and with TBAs. Very high-volume issuance, so the CUSIPs are reused to facilitate processing by market participants. And with discount commercial paper and the discount notes, these are agreed-upon practices dating back over 30 years, and it has worked pretty well. Also, as far as the CUSIP assignment, we definitely get involved with a concept known as fungibility in order to uniquely identify a security. So for example, with shares, if the shares trade on multiple exchanges or in different currencies, it's still considered the same fungible security or class. So it receives one CUSIP. On the debt side, often in the offering document we'll see a separate class or tranche by currency. So that would be assigned a separate CUSIP. And we also distinguish the CUSIPs based on the transfer or ownership. So if it's SEC registered, if it's a private offering, typically a 144A Reg D or Regulation S. So on the debt side, it may be one credit for ratings purposes, but for securities processing purposes, separate and unique CUSIPs are assigned based on the transfer and ownership restrictions. We're also introducing a new concept as far as assignment, which we're calling CUSIP permanence. We're getting -- we've been getting the word out since the beginning of the year asking for feedback from industry participants. CUSIP permanence refers to corporate name changes. It's a fundamental change in the CUSIP procedure. Typically, all along, the CUSIP assignments has been based on alphanumeric sequencing. So if it's a drastic name change that alters that sequencing, we've always assigned a new CUSIP for a corporate name change. CUSIP permanence changes that. Currently, for slight name changes that do not alter the sequencing, we do keep the same CUSIP. So we're expanding that procedure to all corporate name changes, including if it's a significant name change alphabetically. So for name changes the impact would be we're no longer maintaining that alphanumeric sequencing. However, for new issuer assignments, like for IPOs or other offerings, we're still maintaining that alphanumeric sequencing. If it's a merger or a reorg in which a new legal entity is created, we're continuing to assign a new CUSIP. And then also, we plan on -- CUSIP permanence would also apply for mutual fund name changes as well. And we'll be posting very shortly, within the next week or two, a request for comments on the CUSIP main homepage to submit comments regarding CUSIP -- regarding permanence along with a direct link to a CUSIP mailbox if you have any questions. And here in this slide right here is just a quick overview of an example of an older corporate name change if permanence was in place. This goes back to a few years ago when Coach changed their name to Tapestry. So the top panel of the slide is the current procedure in which a new CUSIP number would be assigned for Tapestry since there is a change in alphanumeric sequencing. And then the second half of this slide shows what that would have -- what permanence would have looked like if that was in effect at the time of the name change. So the original CUSIP for Coach, 189754104, that would be maintained for Tapestry. So we would no longer be maintaining the alphanumeric sequencing. And just to be clear, this new policy would not impact previous name changes, like Coach. It would only be for name changes taking place after this new procedure starts, which we're planning for some time this year. Now I'll turn to global identifiers. CUSIP is a member of ANNA, the Association of National Numbering Agencies. ANNA is responsible for maintaining and overseeing the ISIN standard as well as the CFI and the Short Name, which we'll get into. The main function of ANNA is to operate the ANNA Service Bureau, which is the largest repository of ISINs. ANNA currently consists of members representing 123 countries, CUSIP in addition to other numbering agencies. CUSIP, where -- we partner with SIX Financial, the Swiss numbering agency, to operate the ANNA Service Bureau in the collection and dissemination of ISINs, the CFI codes, the Short Names that are allocated by the various numbering agencies around the world on a daily basis. Now I'll turn to the ISIN. The ISIN is the global securities identifier. It started in 1978. So for any cross-border trading, the ISIN is used. In many other countries, the ISIN is the primary identifier. For numbering agencies, typically they would use their local code, and then embedded in the local code, that's used for the ISIN. So here on the screen is the ISIN that would be assigned for, in this case, Air Canada. So it has CA as the ISIN prefix. CUSIP, working with the Canadian Depository for Securities, assigns the CUSIP, and that's used as the base, the local identifier for the ISIN. The ISIN at the beginning is the country code. And then at the very end is the check digit. So the ISIN is a total of 12 characters. And there are rules in place in regarding the ISIN according to the standard. So for equity, it is the numbering agency in the country where the entity is legally organized. And then for debt, it's the numbering agency where the central securities depository is. So for example, if the debt is held at DTC in the U.S., CUSIP is the responsible numbering agency. If it's held at -- in Euroclear, then XS would be the responsible numbering agency. Continuing with some of the other global identifiers, CFI. The CFI started in 1996. It provides a classification system for securities. It consists of 6 alpha characters. The first 6 positions -- excuse me, the first 2 positions gives the asset or product type classification, and then the next 4 positions is the 4 of the relevant attributes for that particular category and group. So on the screen is an example of shares, and then on the right side is an example of the CFI for bonds. And the CFI is allocated by the numbering agency responsible for the -- for ISIN assignment. The CFI is also used for MiFID II reporting in the -- by European Union. Also, another global standard is the Financial Instrument Short Name. The Short Name consolidates the issuer name and the security description, and here on the screen is an example. The first part of the FISN is the issuer, a consolidated description, and then some key attributes of the security itself, so -- for the Short Name. And again, the Short Name is allocated by the numbering agency responsible for the ISIN. And then the final identifier that I'll discuss before turning it to Brian is the legal entity identifier. The legal -- the LEI identifies the entity, not the security. So it's a bit different from the other identifiers. The LEI is required in the United States for the reporting of swaps and derivative transactions with the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission, and it's also required in the EU for trade reporting purposes. So the LEI, it consists of 20 characters, broken down. The first 4 characters indicates the local operating unit that actually assigned the LEI -- 5493 is for DTC allocating the LEI -- and then the rest of the characters is the randomly generated LEI with basic business card information for the entity. And then back in late 2019, we also joined the initiative with ANNA and GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, that maintains the ISIN -- the LEI identifier. So we provide mapping between the ISIN and the LEI. So now I will turn it over to Brian.

Okay. Great. Thanks very much, Gerry. Good afternoon, everybody. So at this point, you've heard about the history of CUSIP, along with how the identifiers are created. Now I'd just like to spend the next few slides going through all our products and how this data is distributed to the market. So you can see on the slide here, it's broken into 3 sections. First is our CGS data feeds, which is comprised of our database services, identifier solution services, portfolio and segment services. Second is our web offering. This is where the data is delivered via the web through products such as CUSIP Access -- CUSIP Municipal Issuer Access, as well as the API Web Services. And last, but not least, we do offer entity IDs in the credit derivative space through our partnership with Markit's RED service. These identifiers are known as RED codes. And on a separate note, we do have CUSIP and LEI certification programs. These programs were initiated to maintain the integrity of the data through annual reviews by the issuers themselves certifying the data. So when it comes to CGS database services, we like to think of these as our flagship products. The first is CUSIP ISIN CINS Master Files. These files are all separate. They're delivered via SFTP on a daily basis or intraday frequency, daily being end of day and intraday being offered every 15 minutes via the CUSIP poll service. Just one thing to note, these files are also offered in subsets, debt-only or equity-only to name a few of them. We also have legal identifiers, the LEIs. These identifiers are delivered through a product called LEI Plus. This file contains roughly over 1.4 million LEIs, which assist in providing a more reliable linking of business entities within the company hierarchies. Direct beneficiaries of this service include risk management, client onboarding, AML, operations, financial control teams as well as sales and trading. Mortgage-backed and TBA services. This file contains the preassigned TBA or to be announced mortgage-backed securities' CUSIP numbers with their descriptive terms. And lastly private placement, for the insurance industry PPNs. This file contains roughly over 150,000 PPNs that were created and assigned by CGS for the insurance industry. Now the second thing I'd like to discuss is the identifier solution services. Here, we've created multiple linkage products, such as the 144A. This file links related issues from the same private offering document. Based on the type of investor allowed to purchase these securities, CGS will assign an identifier for each type of qualified buyer. The linked CUSIPs include the 144A, the credit investor, the Regulation S along with the registered issue. As part of our contribution to the LEI initiative, CGS developed a process to link CABRE to the global ISIN. This related instrument bundle is known as the CRIB file. This file identifies and links securities issued by a single entity historically through CUSIP-related issuer and issue activity, such as corporate actions. And finally, our associated issuers and the 3 types of ISIN CUSIP CINS linkage files, I will go through all of those in greater detail in upcoming slides. So now for the last section on the slide, CGS has also grown through partnerships. We like to call those our segmented services. So we've partnered with several firms to include data into our database. First being for listed options, stock option futures and options on futures, we partnered with Euromoney TRADEDATA. These CUSIPs, which highlight the link between the 21-character OCC symbol, along with the underlying symbol and the CUSIP ISIN number -- excuse me, issue number. The LSTA, the Loan Syndications and Trading Association, this syndicated loan service is a database of U.S. private corporate bank loans. This service provides a 9-character CUSIP, along with a 12-character ISIN for each loan at the deal and facility level. We partnered with Delaware Depository on creating unique CUSIPs for physical precious metals. These are utilized to help standardize the process of trading and tracking precious metals within an investor's portfolio. And Templum Markets, which operates an SEC-registered ATS, issuing CUSIPs to digital securities that are traded on a blockchain or DLT platform. And lastly, our newest partnership with ISS ESG, which is the largest provider of ESG scoring for the U.S. municipal marketplace, partnering to provide a CUSIP/GEOID mapping file that links CUSIP identifiers for municipal securities with a regional data for corresponding issuers. The file -- this file can also be enhanced to include ISS proprietary ESG scoring to provide unique insight into sustainability matrix for municipal issuers. Okay. So on this slide, I'd like to focus on a few things. The first being the CUSIP Pulse, which is our data feed product that offers near real-time data. This is an enhanced version of our older new issue alert product, where it's updated every 15 minutes, a file is delivered via SFTP, which captures not only new additions but also any changes, deletes that were created throughout the day. Examples of that would be corporate actions or any withdrawal securities or suspended issues. As I mentioned earlier, we have the 3 types of ISIN CUSIP CINS linkage files. The first is our CUSIP ISIN file, which contains over 11 million U.S. and Canadian instruments. Second is our CINS to ISIN file, which contains 6 million globally traded instruments. And the third is our global ISIN file containing over 6 million globally traded instruments, which were supplied by 120 independent global NNAs. The benefit of these linkage files is that we link CUSIP to ISIN as well as CINS to ISIN to help facilitate global referencing for cross-border trading. Clients find value in these files that they -- it provides global instrument coverage utilizing the 9-character CUSIP CINS along with the 12-character ISIN. So now I'd like to touch on -- highlight our associated issuer file, which links related issuer names in the CUSIP database that either have multiple issuer base numbers or have gone through a corporate action such as a merger, acquisition or name change. This file provides the new and the old issuer name along with the effective dates for any corporate action. The old base numbers will be linked to the latest active CUSIP number. So our most popular web tool is called CUSIP Access. It's a web-based tool that allows direct linkage to our database, providing access to over 50 million identifiers with their standardized subscriptions and up to 62 separate data elements, and is updated every 5 minutes. How it works is, a user is provided a user name along with a password, which allows them to log in to the Access site, where they can do ad hoc searches, either by utilizing CGS identifiers, CUSIPs, ISIN, CINS. Also now they could also use tickers or they could search by issuer name. In addition to identity searches, the Access users also have the ability to search for new issues, utilizing the New Issues tab, providing near real-time updates by asset type. So it also provides any new CUSIPs that have been assigned throughout the day will also be found in this New Issues tab. Clients also have visibility into corporate actions, utilizing the Corporate Actions tab. Here, again, there will be the old, the new name and also any effective dates will be included in this tab as well. So when it comes to facilitating disclosure reporting on the Rules 15c2-12, we offer a product called the Municipal Issuing Issuer Access. That's very similar to regular CUSIP Access. It's where it's updated near real-time, every 5 minutes. The users are able to view, print and download all securities for a given municipality or related authority. This service allows an easy way for municipal issuers to obtain CUSIP numbers for disclosure filings. Clients also have the ability to upload up to 100,000 CGS identifiers in an Excel format for validation and data retrieval through our portfolio service product. The reference data retrieved confirms the accuracy for each identifier provided. Clients generally leverage this service to maintain the accuracy of the security master files. Okay. So the next few slides, I'm going to go through some of the new things for 2021. So number one is the redesigned CUSIP platform. So the platform is redesigned. We incorporated some of the look and feel of the redesigned cusip.com marketing website, along with some new functionalities which I'll go through in the next slide. But along with the redesign and the new functionalities, we've also enhanced the search results, improving the user experience, producing more dynamic searches. So one of the new functionalities is the one-box search. So as you see here, it's very similar to a Google Search, where the user can input either identifiers -- multiple identifiers or multiple tickers or tickers or they can also search by issuer name. And if they would like to narrow searching, they could search by issuer name, and they can also add a coupon rate and also a maturity date. Then when you -- once you -- the search results come back, they'll be just filtered on that particular rate, that issuer name along with the maturity date. So far, this was released in January, and the -- our users have really embraced it. We've noticed that majority of our searches are being performed on this new quick search box. The second functionality that we've added is an Excel add-in or plug-in. This is -- this affords the user the ability to connect to our database directly, use -- and to do download directly into an Excel workbook. So in this screenshot here, you notice this is a screen to data wizard. And on the left, you'll see a category. You notice that there's debt, equity, loans, options and futures. So here, I selected debt, and you'll notice in the middle column, it's a data field. These are the fields that you can select. Obviously, some are hidden, from -- -- you have to scroll down, but the ones that are in bold are issuer attributes and the ones that are not bold are issue. So if you notice, this would be utilized to customize any output file. So when you choose the selected data fields on the right, once you apply that, that is the only -- those are the data elements you will only see in your output file. And so once this field is applied, the user simply needs to just populate the Column A with the identifiers they are interested in seeing and then they just run the output file. Okay. And lastly, for -- new for 2021, we're really excited about this new offering. It's in the ESG space. CGS in partnership with ISS-ESG is offering a CUSIP/GEOID mapping file that links the CUSIP identifiers for municipal securities to the GEOID. GEOID is a unique geographical identifier assigned by the U.S. Census Bureau that captures issuers at the state, county, city and school district level. Investors can apply these nonfinancial factors as part of their analysis to identify material risks and also growth opportunities. The file may -- this file may also be enhanced to include ISS ESG scores for a unique insight into sustainability matrix for municipal issuers. The ISS aggregates data that they get from numerous quasi-governmental agencies to create a unique scoring and ranking system, which allows market participants to gain a deeper insight into municipal issue exposure in their portfolios by sourcing key regional data, including socioeconomic, climate risk, just to name a few. So the 2 files offered, first is the CGS-ISS data mapping file. This file links the first 6 characters of the CUSIP municipal identifier to the GEOID hierarchy for the issuer, mapping the state, county, city and census track level, socioeconomic, climate risk, environmental and crime data to underlying municipal security issuer. The second file includes all the information provided in the first file, the mapping file, along with ISS's proprietary ESG scoring data, providing a direct link between the underlying municipal issuer and its ESG exposure. ESG data is updated quarterly, and there's also -- peer analysis is also -- scoring is also provided. ESG scores for all other issuers in respect of geographical category are included, but it's broken into different buckets. Depending on the population, there's a bucket for a 10,000-plus population and 100,000-plus population. So in conclusion, I just -- if anybody has any questions regarding any of these products, please just send us an e-mail or a follow-up after this call and I'll be able to respond, more than happy, via e-mail or I'll be more than happy to set up a phone call to have a further discussion. With that, I'll hand it over to Matt.

Thank you, Brian. All right. So turning briefly to protecting the data, which is one of our highest obligations to the ABA. We never really mentioned this much publicly over the years, but we do, on occasion, prevent suspicious-looking deals from making it to market. Among the red flags we look for in an offering document can be absurd offering amounts or perhaps just bizarre jurisdictions of issuance, the Dominion of Melchizedek being one of our favorites from over the years. But in general, there's just something that doesn't look right, and our staff, Gerard's team, is quick to spot it. It's not a common occurrence, but the general scheme is to use the fake offering document to get the CUSIP or try to get the CUSIP, and then a combination of the 2 as a representation of collateral to take out a loan. So in the same vein, for us just slapping things -- slapping numbers on things isn't the goal. If you think about that process that Gerard walked you through when it comes to issuance, it really starts with that profile of standardized reference data, and the identifier itself is almost an industrial byproduct at that more deliberate process, and protecting the data also involves knowing who's using it. So if vendor A passes it to bank B and they send portions to asset manager C and they upload it to a portfolio accounting system, and each party in that chain is perhaps adding dummy CUSIPs or doctoring the data somehow, at some point down that chain, things will start to break. If you're using copies of copies of copies, you will inevitably suffer a degradation in quality, and that's what we try to prevent. So with that in mind, there is a licensing component to CUSIP data, whether it's consumed directly or indirectly. That sustained investment that we spoke of earlier is possible because of this, and one license covers multiple sources or vendors. So if you get Ts & Cs from one pipe, pricing from another and corporate actions from another, and all of that content is CUSIP driven, one license covers all of that delivery. We do have a fee calculator for transparency, and that's on our website. And it takes into account things like number of business lines, security count and regions of use, or regions of operation. And closing out our presentation today, this is a section where we like to look to the future a little bit and what it may hold. And so I'm going to talk a little bit about digital securities. There was a great deal of buzz in 2015, 2016 around the technology underpinning Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and that's blockchain or distributed ledger technology. And the talk was around how it was going to revolutionize everything mid to back office in the capital markets. T+2 becomes T+0; clearing and settlement become instantaneous and error free. Billions of costs in field trade saved, et cetera. We were skeptical at the time, and indeed much of the initial hype has faded. Where we have been a little more bullish with DLT is where we think there's a solid use case. And it's not just a technology solution in search of a problem, if you will. And we think we've seen that with DLT-based platforms that trade digital or tokenized securities. It's important to note that these are not cryptocurrencies or ICOs. It's very much the wild west out there with all things tokenized. But these are private securities with a valid offering document, so Gerard's team can go through and do their process as they would with a more conventional book-entry offering. So Brian had touched on this earlier. In 2018, we announced a partnership with Templum, SEC-registered broker-dealer and ATS, to use CUSIPs for private offerings trading on their platform. The first one was called Aspen Coin. This was a Reg D offering for shares in the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, and other platforms are doing very similar work. And I think it's safe to say that the digital securities market is only going to grow, again, in part because it actually has a use case. So with digital securities, apologies for the screenshot with my big mug on it, but if you want to learn more, we did have an opportunity to participate in a few episodes of the Digital Asset Report. This is a YouTube channel devoted to all things fintech, kind of a poor man's Squawk Box, if you need a comparison. So we would encourage you to check that out. And with that, we had a brief survey. Just if you are okay with us contacting you about additional information, including capital markets research, just a yes or no option there. And then I think we can go to the questions.

So we did have one come in, whether there will be a replay set later. I think we mentioned this in the housekeeping notes that, yes, we will send a replay by the -- hopefully, by the end of the week. Another question: are CUSIPs assigned to SPACs? Gerard, do you want to take that one?

Sure, Matt. Yes. Yes, we've seen a lot of interest, as many of you know, there's been a surge in SPAC offerings or blank check companies as an alternate way of having an IPO through a merger. So definitely, in step with the market, yes, we definitely have seen a lot of requests, and we do assign CUSIPs to SPACs, the special acquisition corporations. SPACs are a bit unique from other IPOs since they consist of a unit of shares and warrants, and the warrant expiration is based on a future acquisition and the effective date. So the actual final terms of the offering does not take place upon closing. So we've had a lot of inquiries about that as far as providing the final terms, but it's just the nature of SPACs themselves.

Okay. Thanks, Gerard. And then another one: is the obligor info available for both corporate and UNI offerings? Brian, can you field that one?

Yes, it is. It's also available. It's available in the files and it's also available in CUSIP Access.

Okay. And then, well, another one's come in. We get this a lot: are CUSIPs reused? Gerard?

Yes. Thank you, Matt. No, CUSIPs are not reused. We did touch upon it earlier in one of the slides. So in general, CUSIPs are not reused. So if an issue matures or it's suspended, we would not reuse that CUSIP. So that's our general policy. Just in those very narrow areas for like discount commercial paper, in which only to facilitate the high-volume processing. Other than that, we do not reuse CUSIPs.

Okay. Thanks, Gerard. And I think the last one we have for now, this is from a vendor, is: how does the format of segmented files compare to the larger CUSIP CINS database? Brian, I think that's a product-related one.

Can you repeat that? I'm sorry, Matt.

Is there a difference in the format between the segment files and the larger CUSIP CINS database?

No, there's no difference between those 2 files now.

Okay. All right. And I think that is it for now. Give it another minute, see if we get any last-minute questions.

Matt, I do see one question about permanence, pretty basic -- when and why?

Sorry, I missed that one.

So permanence, we did touch upon that new procedure where we would keep the same CUSIP for all corporate name changes. We're hoping to start that in midyear based on the feedback. We've been in the process of getting feedback, reaching out to participants. And like I said, we will be posting the request for comments for further feedback. And as far as why, part of it, as part of the 5-year review of CUSIP and the ISIN standard -- coincidentally, they were pretty much at the same time -- that was feedback we were getting from industry participants. And also the ANNA with the ISIN guidelines, it's also a practice of the other numbering agencies. So we would be in alignment with that in keeping the same CUSIP and the corresponding ISIN as well for corporate name changes. Thank you for that question.

Okay. All right. And with that, I think we will give everyone about 5 minutes back today. Please do fill out the survey that should pop up at the end, so we can take your feedback into account for future sessions. Appreciate you joining us. Hope everyone is staying well and the vaccines are rolling out in your communities. And we will see you all next time. Thanks.