New NNA Portal – Further milestone to increase automation in the investment funds space

02.03.2021

Clearstream, as National Numbering Agency (NNA) for Luxembourg issues ISIN, CFI and FISN codes for any Luxembourg-domiciled securities, and more specifically for Luxembourg-incorporated investment funds and companies. Clearstream issues on average 22,000 ISINs via 2,300 requests, sent by over 100 requestors on a yearly basis.

Bernard Tancré, Head of Investment Fund Services Product, at Clearstream talks about the new NNA Portal introduced in Q4 2020 including first user experience and how it contributes to our overall strategy to increase automation and efficiency in the investment funds space.

Bernard, what is the new NNA Portal?

We are pleased about the smooth implementation of our new NNA Portal, an interactive and user-friendly platform for the issuance of LU ISIN funds. Since January 2021, any LU ISIN issuance request and Clearstream eligibility assessment request from fund agents on a LU ISIN fund is exclusively handled via the new NNA Portal.

The new platform provides an integrated request workflow management to ISIN requestors, as well as offering value-added services, such as an optional Clearstream eligibility assessment (for settlement and custody) on the issued LU ISIN codes.

What was the strategic driver to develop a new platform for the issuance of funds?

The introduction of the new NNA Portal fully supports our strategy in view of providing state-of-art solutions to automate fund processing and to increase efficiency and safety in the investment funds sector. With the new NNA Portal, we reached a further milestone to speed up and to automate the issuance process for Luxembourg-domiciled funds which in turn helps market participants to increase their operational efficiency level.

What are the key advantages of the new NNA portal?

Users of the NNA Portal benefit from a streamlined and simplified LU ISIN issuance process for funds. Fund agents can easily consult the processing status of their ISIN issuance request and can directly retrieve the ISIN issuance as well as Clearstream eligibility assessment status of all their ISINs including the ones requested prior to the implementation of the NNA Portal.

Have you received any feedback from users?   

Since its introduction, first ISINs have been successfully issued via the new NNA Portal. We are very pleased about the positive feedback received from users. The onboarding of market participants to the new system has run smoothly and will continue for any new requestor going forward.

Is the new portal aligned with ANNA guidelines?

The NNA Portal is fully aligned with the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) guidelines.