What is "sicovam"

Sicovam, an acronym for Société Interprofessionnelle pour la Compensation des Valeurs Mobilières, is both a security identifier system used to identify French securities listed on French stock exchanges, as well as the company set up to assign them. Sicovam was merged into the European-wide Euroclear and as of July 1, 2003 SICOVAMs are no longer issued, ISINs being used instead.