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Finding Issuer-Level Identifiers in Bloomberg Symbology

Article Quant Q&A · Author: user_78361084
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Summary

The document addresses how to identify an issuer, rather than an individual security, in Bloomberg Symbology. A search for a company such as Apple can return many instrument records, and the question asks whether an entity-level identifier can be found in the open symbology data. The accepted response says that issuer-level identifiers are not included in the open identifier list and require a data license.

A second response offers a practical way to narrow an instrument search: start with the company’s ticker, then filter by market sector and security type, with exchange or country filters when relevant. This approach helps locate a particular listed equity instrument among many results, but it does not establish the issuer-level identifier sought in the original question. The discussion is brief and provides no broader treatment of identifier standards or data access terms, so its main lesson is to distinguish issuer records from instrument records and to check whether the required identifier is available under the data product being used.

Key ideas

  • Issuer-level identifiers and individual security identifiers represent different entities in financial symbology.
  • The answer states that Bloomberg issuer identifiers are not part of its open symbology list and require licensed data access.
  • Ticker, market sector, security type, exchange, and country filters can narrow searches for specific instruments.
  • Instrument search filters do not necessarily reveal an issuer-level identifier.

Tags

EquitiesFixed incomeStatistics
Full text
# How do I find the entity identifier using BSYM?


# How do I find the entity identifier using BSYM?












I am new to BSYM and would like to do an entity-level search (as described here (towards bottom of document). For instance, a search for "APPLE INC" brings up 266 pages. Which one is for the entity?

I've also tried searching for BBGID "BBG001FDZ799" (the example given for Altria Group) but nothing comes up.

EDIT: To clarify: The entity would be the issuer of the equity, debt, preferred, etc. (For cusips, the entity is the first 6 characters of the cusip identifier...just looking for something similar for BSYM).

## Answer by user_78361084 (score 1, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/17316

Apparently the entity level identifiers aren't part of the open symbology. The entity level identifiers are available via a data license. A so called "open" identifier list is not so open after all ;(

## Answer by chjortlund (score 0)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/17263

I think you are confusing you self.

If I where to search for Apple Inc. I would:

- look up Apple Inc. on eg. Google Finance, and find the ticker symbol (AAPL).

- Put AAPL into the "symbol Search", click "Advanced Search Options".

- In "Market Sector" choose "Equity".

- In "Security Type" select "Common Stock".

That will filter out most of noise in this case.

I you want to find the different Bloomberg ID's for an instrument on a specific exchange or in a specific country/region you can ofcause, just choose something in the "Exchange" and "Country" box.

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.