Whether you are investing in stocks, mutual funds, or any kind of investment option, tracking your portfolio becomes an important and crucial part of your investment journey. In order to optimize your portfolio, you keep an eye on it and try to make regular updates to it so that your profits can be maximized. To make this task a little easier we tend to use many portfolio management apps in which we feed our funds data and they start tracking our portfolio.
But have you wondered if we do not have any identification for our portfolio or the assets inside it, how will we track them down? That is where the ISIN, or International Securities Identification Number, comes into play. In this blog, we will be talking about the mutual fund ISIN number, which is used to track our funds.
Table of Contents
What is a mutual fund?
For easy understanding let us take an analogy and try to understand what is a mutual fund. For instance, whenever we are buying fruits, we usually tend to buy several different varieties of fruit instead of a single variety in order to enjoy the diversification of flavors and tastes.
Similarly, in the case of equities, we buy shares, but in order to maximize our portfolio potential, there is an investment option created for us named Mutual Funds. Mutual funds are like a basket of different shares collected in one. By doing so, one can have exposure to multiple varieties of shares, thus leading to a diversified portfolio. Mutual fund classification can be done on many bases like on the basis of sectors, market capitalization, nationalities, etc. Mutual Funds do not trade on stock exchanges; instead, we can buy them directly from fund websites or from third-party apps like Zerodha, Groww, etc.
What is an ISIN?
Mutual fund ISIN or International Securities Identification Number is a 12-digit number that is assigned to all kinds of securities options like stocks, ETFs, Index funds, bonds, notes, hedge funds, and more. These numbers are assigned and maintained by the National Numbering agency of the respective country, which in turn is based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines.
Using this number one can track their mutual funds details, sometimes it can be the case that the same fund or security is available on different stock exchanges, it can be with the same country or even among different countries. To rectify this confusion, the ISIN number is used as it is assigned uniquely to each security.
How to get an ISIN code for your mutual funds?
- Go to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) Official Website
- Click on the Latest Nav Button (Refer to image below)
- Fill in your mutual fund’s details like the mutual fund house name, categories
- Click on Get Nav.
You will be presented with all the funds that match your search criteria along with their respective ISIN numbers in a list format.
How to get an ISIN code for my shares?
- Navigate to the NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) website.
- Go to the Advanced Search Section
- Click on Company Search
- Click on Detailed Search
- Put in the Company Name
- Click on search, and you will have the ISIN number for the respective company.
How to apply for an ISIN number?
- The company needs to appoint an RTA (Registrar and Transfer Agent)
- After appointing the RTA, the company will make an agreement with the RTA
- RTA will provide the required documents to the company, which needs to be reviewed by them, If any change is found company needs to amend them, sign them, and send them back to RTA
- After that RTA will send it to NSDL or CSDL for verification and approval
- Once the verification process is done, the company will be allotted an ISIN number.
Conclusion
ISIN number is 12 digit crucial number assigned keeping in mind the International Standardization guidelines which helps keep track of our investments. We can identify and verify the mutual funds, which in turn will surely help us make intelligent, calculated, and informed decisions on what exactly we are including in our portfolio.
FAQ
What is an ISIN number?
It is a 12-digit securities (shares, bonds, funds) number provided in compliance with ISO standards to the fund in order to uniquely identify it in the market.
What is a mutual fund?
It is a collection of stocks put together in a basket so that we can have maximum benefits of diversification in our portfolio.
How to get an ISIN for your fund?
One needs to visit their country’s respective National Numbering Agency (NNA) with proper documents in order to get the ISIN number allocated.
How to check the mutual fund ISIN?
We can go to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) official website, where we can enter the mutual fund details and check the ISIN code for the same.
How we can check the ISIN number for stocks?
To check the stock ISIN number, we can head over to the NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) official website and put in the company details under the Advanced search section, and we will get the ISIN number for that particular stock.
Disclaimer
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Please consult a qualified professional before making a financial decision.
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