A great loss

The RIC structure [Thomson Reuters opens access to RICs] was designed in the late 1970s, by the revered Herbie Skeete, as part of the then new IDN system. RICs were initially designed to identify exchange traded instruments, but were later extended to uniquely cover any financial instrument or entity. RICs were ahead of their time in that they offered a unique and intuitive system for identifying GLOBAL instruments.

RICs were a hugely valuable asset to Reuters that others coveted. It was in fact not customers but another information vendor (any ideas who?) that started the RIC groundswell.

The loss of RICs is the loss of something that was fundamentally Reuters.

RIP RICs. ■