LEI The Lifecycle of a LEI Issuer

LEI Issuer Offboarding Process



An LEI issuing organization - also referred to as a Local Operating Unit (LOU) – is an organization authorized to issue and maintain LEIs. The offboarding process for an LOU is triggered by any of the following three scenarios:

  1. The LOU informs GLEIF of their termination of the Master Agreement.
  2. GLEIF informs the LOU of their termination of the Master Agreement.
  3. The LOU is unable to conduct LEI services due to force majeure or any other significant event which prevents the LOU from operating.

Once the offboarding process is initiated, GLEIF’s ‘Trigger LEI Management Transfer’ service will start. As part of this process, GLEIF will determine if any existing LOUs are interested in taking over the LEI portfolio of the offboarding LOU. GLEIF will then evaluate the suitability of the interested LOUs and confirm which LOU(s) will take over the portfolio.

The offboarding LOU, receiving LOU(s) and GLEIF will coordinate the bulk transfer of LEIs from the offboarding LOU to the receiving LOU(s).

Upon successful completion of the bulk transfer, GLEIF will announce the offboarding of the LOU and the bulk transfer to the receiving LOU(s) on the GLEIF website.

  • If the offboarding is triggered by scenario 3, GLEIF will adhere to the following process:
    In accordance with the ‘Service Level Agreement’, GLEIF shall take over the impacted LEI portfolio temporarily and trigger service ‘Trigger LEI Management Transfer.’ This will take place within 48 hours during GLEIF’s business days, given the impacted LOU will have stopped the daily upload of LEI files.
    During this period, GLEIF will temporarily manage impacted LEIs and will announce this publicly via the GLEIF website. However, GLEIF will not act as an LOU and will not issue nor renew any LEI records. GLEIF will only ensure the impacted LEIs are uploaded and included correctly in the Global LEI System and provide contact information to facilitate individual transfer-out for the impacted legal entities. If no business resumption confirmation is received from the impacted LOU until GLEIF concludes the receiving LOU(s), GLEIF will further proceed with the bulk transfer.
    The impacted LOU will be offboarded if there is no response or positive confirmation of business resumption after 3 months.

The primary goals of the offboarding process are to ensure LEI service continuity for impacted legal entities and conduct the LEI bulk transfer in the least costly manner for the Global LEI System.