History of the Global LEI System

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In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, regulators worldwide acknowledged their inability to identify parties to transactions across markets, products, and regions. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), together with the finance ministers and central bank governors represented in the Group of 20 (G20), therefore, advocated developing a universal Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) applicable to any legal entity that engages in financial transactions.

Implementation of the LEI would increase the authorities’ ability to evaluate systemic and emerging risk, identify trends, and take corrective steps.

At its November 2011 Cannes Summit, the G20 called upon the FSB to take the lead in developing recommendations for a global LEI and supporting governance structure.

The resulting FSB recommendations were subsequently endorsed by the G20 at its 2012 Los Cabos summit. The ‘G20 Leaders Declaration’ of 19 June 2012 states: “We endorse the FSB recommendations regarding the framework for development of a global LEI system for parties to financial transactions, with a global governance framework representing the public interest. (...) We encourage global adoption of the LEI to support authorities and market participants in identifying and managing financial risks.”

Following up on the FSB's recommendations, authorities, working with the private sector, developed a framework for a Global LEI System that provides, through the issuance of LEIs, unique identification of legal entities participating in transactions and other official interactions across the globe.

In November 2012, the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, along with the FSB, endorsed the Charter of the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC). The ROC was established in January 2013.

In January 2014, the FSB Plenary, in its capacity as the founder of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), endorsed nominees to the initial GLEIF Board of Directors. These nominees were recommended to the FSB by the ROC. GLEIF is a not-for-profit organization created to support the implementation and use of the LEI.

The GLEIF Board held its inaugural meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, on 26 June 2014. The Board of Directors subsequently announced the appointment of Stephan Wolf as GLEIF Chief Executive Officer.

On June 26, 2024, Alexandre Kech took over from Stephan Wolf as CEO of GLEIF.

The FSB emphasized that global adoption of the LEI underpins multiple “financial stability objectives” and offers “many benefits to the private sector”.

In keeping with these sentiments, GLEIF now envisions a future where every business has a verifiable, trusted global identity – the LEI – hardwired into all relationships and transactions.

To enable businesses to reap the many benefits offered by their participation in the global digital economy, GLEIF has developed the verifiable LEI (vLEI), the digital counterpart to the LEI, and expanded the Global LEI System to incorporate vLEI Issuers, also referred to as Qualified vLEI Issuers.

By making both the LEI and vLEI available, GLEIF and the Global LEI System provide a broad ‘public good’ by building on local authoritative sources and registries to extend access to trusted information globally, supporting integrity and transparency across the digital economy.

In addition to being an internationally recognized organizational identity management infrastructure, today’s Global LEI System also serves as a global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

As a global DPI, the Global LEI System provides organizational identifiers that support and extend the interoperability of local and national infrastructures (e.g., business registries), enabling an internationally recognized, freely available business discovery and verification protocol. It helps infrastructures, businesses, and entities participate in the global digital economy. Through the Global LEI System, local infrastructures can make trusted business information more accessible and verifiable globally without sacrificing integrity or control.

Verified organizational identity is a prerequisite for an efficient, scalable trust ecosystem that lowers transaction costs and risk while fostering collaboration, participation, and innovation. It enables money, goods, and services to flow more freely and securely around the world.