LEI Code Lists

GLEIF Accepted Legal Jurisdictions Code List



The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) publishes the ‘Accepted Legal Jurisdictions Code List’ (available for download below). The list is based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standard 3166 and specifies more than 300 different codes.

According to the current Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) Common Data File (CDF) format definition, ‘LegalJurisdiction’ is the jurisdiction of legal formation ; i.e. where the legal form of the Legal Entity originates. The LEI-CDF xml schema validates the ‘LegalJurisidiction’ field with a value of the type jurisdiction code conforming to the ISO 3166 standard in either:

  • a 2-character country code conforming to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 or
  • a region code conforming to ISO 3166-2.

In order to harmonize and provide a consistent usage between country and sub-division codes defining the ‘LegalJurisdiction’ of a legal entity among the different LEI issuers, GLEIF introduces an explicit list of accepted ISO 3166 codes per country/jurisdiction, considering already existing and established standards and formats within the Global LEI System. This list has been developed in accordance with the underlying LEI standard ISO 17442, LEI-CDF format and related rules and standards established in the Global LEI System. In addition, GLEIF is considering further aspects such as the legislation in the province/territory and federal level.

Guideline description

The general rule is to populate the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 in the ‘LegalJurisdiction’ field unless specified to use sub-division code (3166-2). ISO 3166-2 is selected for certain jurisdictions based on the fact that there are entity legal forms that only are valid at the sub-division level.

Implementation of the GLEIF Accepted Legal Jurisdictions Code List

The standard on ‘LegalJurisdiction’ covers in total more than 300 different legal jurisdictions. LEI issuers are expected to adopt this guideline on updating ‘LegalJurisdiction’ in their process of LEI issuance.

GLEIF will monitor compliance of LEI issuers with the Accepted Legal Jurisdiction Code List. After publication of each new version, the LEI issuers are required to implement all changes within a limited time frame.

Interested parties who have a recommendation for the content of the GLEIF Accepted Legal Jurisdictions Code List, are invited to email to info@gleif.org.


Relevant Files for Download