Financial Data Engineering

Chapter 3. Financial Identification Systems

A key aspect of financial data, such as prices and transactions, is that it can provide informational value only if we can reliably assign each record to its corresponding entity. Being able to filter a dataset to get data for a specific entity unlocks the ability to analyze the data in meaningful ways.

To this end, financial market participants have developed and employed different types of financial identifiers. Nevertheless, data identification remains notably challenging and is widely regarded as one of the most critical problems in financial data management. The outstanding issue of reference data management, presented in the previous chapter, fundamentally revolves around financial identification and the matching of various identifiers that reference the same financial market entity.

This chapter will discuss the problem of financial data identification, illustrate the desired properties of financial identification systems, and examine the key features and limitations of current systems.

If you are going to become a financial data engineer, dealing with financial identifiers and knowing how to manage their shortcomings will be one of the main challenges you will regularly face. So, let’s dive into this issue.

Financial Identifiers

The predominantly digital nature of financial market operations and transactions necessitates recording and querying them through information and database systems. At its heart, a reliable financial ...