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GLEIF Published the Quarterly Global LEI System Business Report Covering the Second Quarter of 2019

The Global LEI System Business Reports highlight main trends relevant to the adoption of the LEI and provide in-depth analysis of the LEI data pool


Author: Stephan Wolf

  • Date: 2019-08-08
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In August 2019, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) published the latest quarterly report, which highlights key developments relevant to the adoption of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). Specifically, the reports assess annual growth and renewal expectations, evaluate the level of competition between LEI issuing organizations operating in the Global LEI System and analyze LEI renewal rates and reference data corroboration. Since July 2017, we also deliver statistics on direct and ultimate parent information provided by legal entities.

To download the ‘Global LEI System Business Report’ which covers the second quarter of 2019, refer to the ‘related links’ below.

This blog post summarizes the main findings of the latest report. Sources cited are included in the ‘related links’ below.

Main findings of the latest Global LEI System Business Report

The Global LEI System Business Report, which was published in August 2019, analyses developments observed in the second quarter of 2019. It shows:

LEI issuance and LEI growth potential: State of play

At the end of the second quarter of 2019, the total Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) population exceeded 1.4 million. Approximately 47,000 LEIs were issued in this timeframe compared to approximately 53,000 in the previous quarter. This represents a quarterly growth rate of 3.4% in the second quarter (previous quarter: 4.1%).

In the second quarter, Mauritius saw the highest LEI growth rate at a jurisdiction level (37.2%). It was followed by China (36.2%), India (17.6%), Australia (13.2%), and Turkey (10.4%), where growth can primarily be attributed to regulatory initiatives mandating the use of the LEI.

Competition in the Global LEI System

The report identifies the least and most competitive markets of those with more than 1,000 LEIs, based on the number of LEI issuers providing services in the jurisdiction. In the second quarter of 2019, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland and the Czech Republic were the five least competitive markets in descending order. The five most competitive markets, also in descending order, were Lithuania, Romania, Portugal, Malta and Bulgaria.

LEI renewal rates

The annual renewal process ensures that the legal entity and the LEI issuing organization review and re-validate the legal entity reference data at least once per year. The Global LEI System is unique in providing absolute transparency on the timeframe when data has last been verified.

In the second quarter of 2019, the overall renewal rate of 70.5% remained essentially unchanged compared to the previous quarter (70.8%). (This includes jurisdictions with at least 1,000 LEIs in total at the previous quarter-end date.) At the end of the second quarter, 73.1% of all LEIs were in good standing (last quarter: 73.4%).

The renewal rate in the EU remained stable at 71.5% (previous quarter 71.7%). In non-EU jurisdictions, it improved to 60.3% (previous quarter: 59.7%).

In the reporting period, the five jurisdictions which demonstrated the highest renewal rates were Finland (93.3%), India (92.9%), Japan (92.2%), Liechtenstein (91%) and Norway (84.8%).

Brazil (54.5%), the United States (54.1%), the Russian Federation (48.3%), the United Kingdom (46.7%) and South Africa (45.7%) had the highest non-renewal rates.

Level 1 reference data corroboration

The business card information available with the LEI reference data, which includes the official name of a legal entity and its registered address, is referred to as ‘Level 1’ data. It defines ‘who is who.’ The Level 1 data is considered fully corroborated if, based on the validation procedures in use by the LEI issuer, there is sufficient information contained in authoritative public sources to corroborate the information that the legal entity has provided for the record. If this is not the case, the business card information available with an LEI record is classified as ‘entity-supplied only’.

In the second quarter of 2019, the percentage of fully corroborated Level 1 reference data within the entire LEI population increased slightly to 79.4% from 78.8% in the previous quarter.

Statistics on the reporting of parent information by legal entities

In the second quarter of 2019, approximately 1.25 million LEI registrants, representing 89% of the total LEI population, had reported information on direct and ultimate parents. 99.9% of LEI registrants who obtained a newly issued LEI or renewed an existing LEI in this quarter reported parent information.

In the reporting period, the percentage of legal entities reporting a direct parent that has an LEI remains stable at 7%. The share of legal entities reporting a direct parent that does not have an LEI further decreased by 1%, from 6% to 5%.
8% of legal entities reported an ultimate parent that has an LEI (previous quarter: 7%). The percentage of legal entities reporting an ultimate parent that does not have an LEI remains stable at 5%.

The quarterly reports refer to concepts and definitions unique to the Global LEI System. To facilitate an easy understanding of the reports, we have summarized relevant concepts in the document ‘Background Information on Global LEI System Business Report’.

GLEIF also makes available the ‘Business Reporting Dictionary’, which defines formulas and algorithms used to report on the LEI activity highlighted with the quarterly reports.

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About the author:

Stephan Wolf is the CEO of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF). In 2023, he was elected as a member of the Board of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Germany. In 2021, he was appointed to an all-new Industry Advisory Board (IAB) as part of the global ICC Digital Standards Initiative (DSI). In that capacity, he serves as co-chair of the workstream on ‚Trusted Technology Environment‘. Between January 2017 and June 2020, Mr. Wolf was Co-convener of the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 68 FinTech Technical Advisory Group (ISO TC 68 FinTech TAG). In January 2017, Mr. Wolf was named one of the Top 100 Leaders in Identity by One World Identity. He has extensive experience in establishing data operations and global implementation strategy. He has led the advancement of key business and product development strategies throughout his career. Mr. Wolf co-founded IS Innovative Software GmbH in 1989 and served first as its managing director. He was later named spokesman of the executive board of its successor, IS.Teledata AG. This company ultimately became part of Interactive Data Corporation, where Mr. Wolf held the role of CTO. Mr. Wolf holds a university degree in business administration from J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main.


Tags for this article:
Data Management, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), Global LEI System Business Reports, GLEIF Data Quality Management Reports, Lapsed LEIs, LEI Issuers (Local Operating Units - LOUs), LEI Renewal, Level 1 / Business Card Data (Who is Who), Level 2 / Relationship Data (Who Owns Whom)