If I recall correctly (and it has been awhile since I worked directly with the Verisign Registry), the codes are generated by the registry, not the registrar. T

If I recall correctly (and it has been awhile since I worked directly with the Verisign Registry), the codes are generated by the registry, not the registrar. Therefore the question should be WTF is the registry playing at. Since they have no incentive to keep you from transferring, I imagine that it's just a byproduct of the algorithm they use to generate those EPP codes.