Built for Trust, Connecting the Future: Strengthening the Global LEI System

As the global economy becomes increasingly interconnected and digital, trusted organizational identity is now pivotal to enabling transparency, efficiency and innovation. In this blog, Alexandre Kech, CEO at GLEIF, reflects on how international policy ambitions, shared standards and a continued commitment to data quality are strengthening the Global LEI System as a Digital Public Infrastructure for trusted organizational identity, advancing interoperability and connecting authoritative data sources across the global economy.

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Building trust between organizations in an increasingly interconnected global economy requires more than technological innovation. It demands a common foundation of verifiable, transparent, and interoperable information that enables organizations to identify one another with confidence, regardless of geography, industry, or regulatory environment.

Since its inception, this ambition has been at the heart of the Global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) System. As digitalization accelerates, and AI agents enter the fold, the need for trusted organizational identity continues to grow.

Regulators, LEI and vLEI issuers, financial institutions, technology providers and other stakeholders gathered at the 2026 Global LEI System (GLEIS) Forum in London to reflect on progress, explore the many opportunities ahead, and reaffirm their commitment to common standards, data quality and collaboration.

Translating global policy ambitions into practical impact

The importance of trusted organizational identity is increasingly reflected in international policy initiatives aimed at increasing transparency and efficiency across global markets. One of the clearest examples is the ‘G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments‘, launched in 2020, to address longstanding challenges relating to cost, speed, transparency, and access. In 2021, G20 Leaders endorsed ambitious global targets, most of which are due by the end of 2027. These include making 75% of cross-border payments available to recipients within one hour, subject to the specific conditions for different payment segments.

The modernization of payment infrastructure, while crucial, is only part of the equation. Achieving these objectives also depends on improving the quality, consistency and interoperability of the data that underpins financial transactions. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has explicitly recognized this connection. In its 2022 report, ‘Options to Improve Adoption of the LEI, in Particular for Use in Cross-border Payments‘, the FSB outlined recommendations to promote broader LEI adoption in support of the G20 Roadmap. By enabling the consistent identification of legal entities across jurisdictions, the LEI can help reduce data-related friction, facilitate straight-through processing, and greatly streamline the vital Know Your Customer (KYC) and related client lifecycle processes designed to support business confidence and curb financial crime.

Yet the need for continued action remains clear. In its October 2025 progress report, the FSB acknowledged significant progress in international policy development while noting that these efforts had not yet translated into substantial improvements for end-users at the global level. This reinforces an important lesson: international standards are only the beginning. Realizing their full value requires sustained implementation, industry collaboration, and a commitment to consistent adoption.

With the United Kingdom preparing to assume the G20 Presidency in 2027, this year's Forum in London provides a particularly relevant setting to consider how trusted organizational identity can contribute to wider ambitions for more efficient, transparent and inclusive global commerce.

Strengthening the foundations of a trusted global system

As the role of the LEI expands, so does the importance of the infrastructure that supports it. The Global LEI System provides a standardized approach to identifying legal entities across markets and jurisdictions. Its strength lies in the global reach of the identifier and in the common rules, governance arrangements, and robust data quality requirements that underpin its reliability. The expansion of GLEIF’s linking initiative in 2026 demonstrates how this infrastructure is becoming increasingly interconnected. With the addition of France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), Centre of Registers and Information Systems (RIK) in Estonia, and the New Zealand Companies Office, the initiative now connects LEI records to official business registers across seven jurisdictions. By linking LEI records directly to official business registers, the Global LEI System makes national company information easier to discover and access across borders, helping streamline cross-border due diligence and supporting greater transparency.

GLEIF’s LEI Mapping Certification service further supports interoperability by linking other identification systems to the LEI through certified mappings, helping reduce data fragmentation. A recent example is GLEIF’s collaboration with Global Energy Monitor (GEM). In 2026, the two organizations published the first certified mapping between GEM Entity IDs and LEIs, connecting open energy asset data with standardized legal entity information. This makes it easier to trace the legal entities behind energy assets worldwide, supporting greater transparency in ownership structures, climate-related due diligence and risk assessments.

Together, these initiatives demonstrate the growing role of the Global LEI System as a global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), connecting organizational identity data with other authoritative sources to support access to reliable, interoperable information across markets and jurisdictions.

Through the collaborative efforts of the Regulatory Oversight Committee, GLEIF, and the global network of LEI and vLEI issuers, the system provides a framework for maintaining consistent standards while serving diverse market needs.

This combination of global governance and distributed implementation is particularly important as demand for trusted organizational identity evolves. Reliable entity data enables financial institutions, businesses, and public authorities to identify organizations more consistently, support regulatory compliance, and improve transparency across business relationships, platforms, and transactions.

At the same time, maintaining confidence in the Global LEI System requires continuous attention to the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of its data. Trust cannot be established once and then taken for granted. It must be reinforced through robust governance, ongoing quality assurance, and collective accountability. These principles are fundamental to ensuring that the Global LEI System remains a trusted and resilient global infrastructure, continuously evolving to meet changing market needs in an increasingly digital and agent-driven economy.

Celebrating success across the Global LEI System

The commitment of LEI issuers, also known as Local Operating Units (LOUs), to maintaining high standards of data quality and operational performance is essential to the continued success of the Global LEI System.

Established in 2023, the annual LEI Issuer Awards recognize outstanding performance among LEI issuers and celebrate the contributions of organizations working to strengthen the quality and reliability of LEI data worldwide.

At this year's GLEIS Forum in London, we are delighted to recognize the recipients of the 2026 LEI Issuer Awards:

• Best-Performing LEI Issuer in the Large-Cap Category: NordLEI
• Best-Performing LEI Issuer in the Mid-Cap Category: GS1 AISBL
• Best-Performing LEI Issuer in the Small-Cap Category: Korea Securities Depository

Together, these perspectives illustrate how a shared commitment to quality, transparency, and international standards contributes to the strength of the Global LEI System. We congratulate all three winners on their achievements and recognize the wider community of LEI issuers whose collective efforts help maintain the integrity and reliability of the system.

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