FIGI Instrument Validator

FIGI: the 12-character Financial Instrument Global Identifier

The FIGI (Financial Instrument Global Identifier) is a 12-character alphanumeric code that uniquely and permanently identifies a financial instrument — a stock, bond, option or future. An open standard maintained by the Object Management Group (with Bloomberg as registration authority), it's free to use, unlike many proprietary security IDs. This tool checks the structure and the check digit; the example BBG000BLNNH6 is Apple's common stock FIGI.

FIGIs are deliberately semantically meaningless — they don't encode the issuer, country or asset type, so they never have to change when a company is renamed, moves exchange or restructures. That permanence is the whole point.

Structure of BBG000BLNNH6

• Characters 1–2: a provider prefix; it may not be one of the forbidden combinations (BS, BM, GG, GB, GH, KY, VG) to avoid clashing with ISIN country codes.
• Character 3: always the letter G.
• Characters 4–11: upper-case consonants and digits (no vowels, to avoid forming words).
• Character 12: a modulus-10 check digit (Luhn-style over base-36 values).

FIGI vs ISIN/CUSIP

• ISIN: 12 chars, encodes a country prefix; one per security per market.
• CUSIP: 9 chars, North America, proprietary.
• FIGI: open, free, granular down to the exchange-level listing, and never reused.

Common pitfalls

• No meaning in the characters: don't parse a FIGI for issuer or country — look it up in OpenFIGI.
• Forbidden prefixes: a FIGI starting with an ISIN-like country code is invalid by design.
• Consonants only: vowels in positions 4–11 signal a malformed code.
• Checksum ≠ exists: a valid check digit doesn't prove the instrument is registered.

FAQ

Why no vowels? Excluding vowels prevents the random middle section from accidentally spelling words.

Is the FIGI free to use? Yes — it's an open standard with no licensing fee, which is a key difference from ISIN/CUSIP.

Does a company have one FIGI? No — there are FIGIs at different levels (global share class, country, and individual exchange listing).