CUSIP is an acronym for the Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures. The CUSIP Service Bureau, operated by Standard & Poor's, administers this system and assigns unique numbers (CUSIP numbers) and standardized descriptions of securities. A company is required to obtain a CUSIP number in connection with a registered offering and certain types of unregistered offerings (such as a Rule 144A offering and a Regulation S offering).

Each security issued by a company has its own CUSIP number, which is a nine-digit identifier composed of both numbers and letters. Typically all securities issued by the same issuer have the same first six digits; the last three digits represent the specific type of security.

For more information on registered offerings, see Practice Note, Registration Process: Overview. See also Practice Note, Conducting an Unregistered Offering: Overview for information on unregistered offerings.