Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) Mapping: The Perfect Business Language
GLEIF’s quality assured, free and open source mapping solutions ease the process of gathering, aggregating and reconciling counterparty information
Author: Stephan Wolf
Date: 2019-06-12
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To conduct business digitally, counterparties must be identified accurately, without any ambiguity. To do this, many businesses use mapping solutions. These mapping solutions match entity identifier A against entity identifier B to ensure that both are recognized as referring to the same organization. However, the kind of mapping needed to pinpoint the entities you are dealing with has not always been totally accurate or transparent enough.
Up until now, that is. The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has established a free of charge certification process which ensures that organizations use state of the art methodologies to accurately map the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) to their own identifiers.
GLEIF enables quality assured, free and open source mapping solutions
LEI mapping – the perfect business language
Certification, along with the subsequent publication of freely available, open source relationship files by GLEIF, which match the identifiers of mapping partners against corresponding LEIs, eases the process of gathering, aggregating and reconciling counterparty information. This is useful for many purposes including: compliance; regulatory reporting; client relationship management; and due diligence.
Data vendors and other organizations can benefit significantly from mapping their applicable identifiers to the LEI. It provides enhanced functionality to their customers: interoperability across parallel ID platforms streamlines entity verification processes and reduces data management costs for data users.
We’re creating a perfect language for business. One that will help everyone to trust who they work with, whatever identifier they use.
The LEI connects to key reference information describing a legal entity including its ownership structure. With the LEI, businesses benefit from the world’s strictest regime of regular data verification. And by mapping an alternate identifier to the LEI, a business automatically has access to the open, high quality LEI reference data. This protects its investment in existing software and processes while providing added value based on the reliable and trusted LEI data.
In February 2018, GLEIF and SWIFT introduced the first open source relationship file that matches a Business Identifier Code (BIC) assigned to an organization against its LEI. With the launch of this open source file, GLEIF and SWIFT have pioneered a cooperation model that, for the first time, enables market participants to link and cross-reference these key entity identifiers free of charge.
In April 2019, GLEIF and the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) piloted the first daily open-source relationship files that link newly issued International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and LEIs. This collaboration improves the transparency of exposure by linking the issuer and issuance of securities. It enables firms to aggregate data which clearly shows their securities exposure in relation to an individual issuer and its related entities.
We know that all businesses working with entity identification have the same set of problems. The good news is that every business can also benefit from the same solution. And that solution is GLEIF’s open source, free and reliable mapping tables.
For more information on LEI mapping, please see the ‘related links’ below.
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Stephan Wolf was the CEO of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) (2014 - 2024). Since March 2024, he has led the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)’s Industry Advisory Board (IAB) of the Digital Standards Initiative, the global platform for digital trade standards alignment, adoption, and engagement. Before he was appointed as Chair, he had been serving as Vice-Chair of the IAB since 2023. In the same year, he was elected to the Board of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Germany.
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 strategies. 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.
