We are very happy to announce that as of June 17, 2021, the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange (“DCSX”) was approved as a Partner of the Association of National Numbering Agencies (“ANNA”) and as National Numbering Agency for Curaçao. The approval took place during the Ordinary General Meeting held in Frankfurt Germany.

ANNA is a global association of national numbering agencies with a common mission: to provide reliable, accurate, and trusted means to identify and describe securities that can be used by all nations and their markets. This is done through ISO-standard identifiers. ISO-standard identifiers have become the common language of financial transactions and processing around the world, because they are developed by the financial industry itself, under processes established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The ISO process, the resulting identifiers, and the long-term governance standards are used by every business sector, because of their characteristics of ethical integrity, commitment to open communications, and the continuing involvement of the businesses affected. The International Securities Identification Number (ISIN), and the Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI) that are assigned by the national numbering agencies are part of a larger family of financial identifiers known as the ISO-standard identifiers. They identify aspects such as the country and currency in which securities are traded, where they were issued, the names of the issuer and the home-country depository, and the exact type of securities and their terms.

The impact of these ISO-identifiers on the financial industry is immense and ongoing. They have been essential to the ongoing evolution of the entire lifecycle of investment operations. They have massively reduced the time, cost, and risk of cross-border transactions. They provide standards for sharing information among all the entities involved in capital markets operations – investors, asset managers, broker-dealers, exchanges, custodian banks, clearinghouses, depositories, and other specialists.

Although ANNA and the global identifiers have existed for more than two decades, the work and excitement of bringing new numbering agencies online is a constant reminder of why this work is so important. Every country that takes on the responsibility of issuing globally standard identifiers accomplishes much more than only associating codes with aspects of an investment instrument. This step enables investment capital to flow easily across borders. It facilitates modern automated exchanges and trade settlements. Last but not least, each nation that participates in the common financial language adds to and profits from a global understanding of opportunity and risk in the markets.

In taking responsibility for assigning these identifiers, the members and partners of ANNA meet strict and detailed standards in how they register the securities and keep the data current, in their business practices in serving issuers and users of the identifier, and in the group requirement to keep standards and practices current with changing market conditions. In all of this, ANNA provides a formal framework for support, education, technical and operational solutions development, and representation to financial and regulatory forums. ANNA also operates the ANNA Service Bureau (ASB) to consolidate the identifiers from around the world and provide a single point of access for users who may need regular feeds of new and updated identifier information. ANNA also has a second role in servicing the financial community at large as the Registration Authority for the ISIN standard. ANNA is responsible for monitoring the national numbering agencies for compliance with standards in business operations, technology, and data quality, as well as providing assistance to agencies in difficulty.

The ISINs for Curaçao based entities have been issued by the national numbering agency CUSIP Global Services (“CGS”) thus far. At the moment the DCSX is working with CGS on the transition of responsibilities as the new NNA for the Curaçao region and will announce when the exchange will officially start receiving ISIN applications for Curaçao based entities.

We are very excited to be part of this prestigious association, as this gives us the opportunity to elevate our profile internationally and expand our markets.