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The LEI in Numbers: Q3 Renewals Drive Greater Data Quality

Significant increase in reporting across new LEI data formats promotes greater transparency in the global marketplace


Author: Stephan Wolf

  • Date: 2022-10-20
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The Global LEI Foundation (GLEIF) is proud of its ongoing transparency initiatives, including its open approach to providing unrestricted access to the latest LEI data from around the world with the Quarterly LEI System Business Reports, which are made publicly available free of charge. Through this ‘LEI in Numbers’ blog series, GLEIF aims to highlight key data from the latest report, explaining trends and profiling successes from the global LEI rollout.

The latest report, covering Q3 2022, highlights that over 50,000 LEIs were issued globally throughout the quarter. This brings the total active LEI population to 2.12 million, representing a quarterly growth rate of 2.4%.

For a further summary of the past quarter’s data, the below infographic contains the key statistics from Q2 2022.

So-called ‘competitive markets’ refer to those with over 1,000 LEIs, based on the number of LEI issuers providing services in the jurisdiction. The most competitive markets are those with the most LEI issuers per jurisdiction, with similar market share, and vice versa for the least competitive markets.

For the second consecutive quarter, Saudi Arabia maintained the highest jurisdictional LEI growth rate, with a 29.5% increase in Q3. Sustained growth in this market reflects the continued success of the Saudi Credit Bureau’s initiative with the Saudi Central Bank, encouraging firms within the financial sector to obtain an LEI. Saudi Arabia’s lead in the highest jurisdictional LEI growth stakes was followed by Iceland (8.2%), Croatia (8.1%), and India (7.6%). Finally, New Zealand is a new entrant to the top five growth regions (7.2%), which can be partly attributed to the impact of regulation from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC). This regulation aims to phase out the use of AVID and BIC identifiers, requiring New Zealand entities involved in transactions with Australian banks to register for an LEI instead.

The overall LEI renewal rate for Q3 2022 increased to 61.9%, as quarterly renewals improved across both EU jurisdictions (64.5%) and non-EU jurisdictions (57.2%). Japan again demonstrated the highest renewal rate (91.4%), followed by Luxembourg (89.7%), Finland (88.2%), Norway (81.6%), and India (80.4%).

In parallel with an increase in renewal rates, Q3 also saw a significant increase in reporting across the new data formats introduced in March this year. Over 4,600 legal entities were identified as government entities and 19 as international organizations (up from 4,000 and 14, respectively, in Q2). In addition, approximately 73,000 legal entities are now reporting fund relationships, an increase of over 15,600 on the previous quarter.

This notable increase in data reported in Q3 helps to demonstrate the beneficial impact of renewals on the overall data volume and consistently high quality of the Global LEI Index. As entities renew their LEI, the most up-to-date data is captured and shared with a global network of users who are reliant on accurate and relevant data to make informed business decisions. As renewals increased in Q3, the Global LEI System benefitted from more relevant insight into the entities that form the global LEI population.

As a reminder, the Quarterly LEI System Business Reports now contain data from the new LEI data formats outlined in the latest Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) policies. These new formats have expanded the scope of the data contained in each LEI, creating further transparency in the global marketplace and broadening the utility of the Global LEI System for users everywhere. For more insight into these updates, please refer to Q2’s ‘LEI in Numbers’ blog.

For the full report which includes further detail on the status of LEI issuance and growth potential, the level of competition between LEI issuing organizations in the Global LEI System and Level 1 and 2 reference data, please visit the Global LEI System Business Reports page.

Readers to note that, in March 2022, the CDF formats were updated based on the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) policies: Legal Entity Events (formerly referred to as “Corporate Actions") and Data History in the Global LEI System, Policy on Fund Relationships and Guidelines for the registration of Investment Funds in the Global LEI System, and LEI Eligibility for General Government Entities Guidance Document.

If you are interested in reviewing the latest daily LEI data, our Global LEI System Statistics Dashboard contains daily statistics on the total and active number of LEIs issued. This feature now enables any user to review historical data by geography, increasing transparency on the overall progress of the LEI.

For further detail or to access historical data, please visit the Global LEI System Business Report Archive. We look forward to sharing our progress each quarter as we continue to drive LEI adoption in 2022.

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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:
Global LEI System Business Reports, Global LEI Index, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), LEI Issuers (Local Operating Units - LOUs), LEI Renewal, Open Data, Data Management, Level 1 / Business Card Data (Who is Who), Level 2 / Relationship Data (Who Owns Whom)