Standards
Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)
A globally issued identifier for a legal entity participating in financial transactions.
- Kind
- Identifiers
- Steward
- Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF); ISO 17442
What it describes
An LEI distinguishes a legal entity from similarly named entities across jurisdictions. GLEIF publishes a global LEI index with reference data supplied through the LEI issuing network. The identifier is useful when a filing, transaction, or counterparty record needs an unambiguous legal-entity reference. It does not identify an informal brand, a business unit, or an entire corporate group by itself.
The reference record matters alongside the code. Names, registered addresses, status, and reporting exceptions can change, while the LEI remains the locator for the entity. GLEIF also publishes reported direct and ultimate accounting-consolidating parent relationships as Level 2 data. A system using LEIs should retain the source record and observation date rather than treating one lookup as a permanent statement of ownership.
Structure
20 alphanumeric characters; the final two are ISO 7064 MOD 97-10 check digits.
Useful for
- Join counterparty records across name variants.
- Anchor regulatory filings to a legal entity.
- Review reported parent relationships with source dates.
Limits
- Does not identify a brand or corporate group.
- A valid check digit does not prove current registration status.
- Level 2 parent reporting is separate from the identifier itself.
How it is used in practice
The LEI was created so that regulators and firms could refer to the same legal entity without relying on names. It now appears in many financial reporting regimes, in payment and securities messaging, and in due-diligence files. In each case the code works as a join key: two records carrying the same LEI can be linked without arguing about whether "Example Holdings Ltd" and "Example Holdings Limited" are the same body. The code itself carries no information about the entity. The 20 characters are a pointer, and everything a reader wants to know sits in the reference record the pointer leads to.
GLEIF publishes the LEI data pool openly, with a search interface and downloadable files, and describes two layers of data. Level 1 answers who is who: legal name, registered address, registration authority and status. Level 2 answers who owns whom: the reported direct and ultimate accounting-consolidating parents, or a stated reason why none is reported. Because both layers are periodically renewed by the entity or its issuing organization, a record carries dates that matter as much as the values: the last update, the next renewal due, and the registration status.
A worked example
Halden Therapeutics AG is a fictional Swiss pharmaceutical company used on this site for demonstrations. Suppose a procurement file lists a supplier called "Halden Therapeutics" with no legal form, and a regulatory filing names "Halden Therapeutics AG" with an LEI. A name comparison would suggest a match but cannot say which Halden is meant, since a group may contain several entities with similar names in different jurisdictions.
The LEI settles the narrow question. Retrieving the LEI record shows the registered legal name, the registered address, the registration authority and its entity identifier, and the registration status on the retrieval date. If the supplier file also carries a tax or registry number, it can be compared with the registration authority entry in the LEI record. Agreement on a strong identifier supports the link; a different address or a lapsed registration status is a reason to keep the two records separate until further evidence arrives. The decision, the retrieval date and the LEI record version belong with the link, because a later renewal or a change of name can alter what the same lookup returns.
Evaluating a claim that rests on an LEI
Three checks cover most failures. First, confirm the code against the reference record rather than trusting its syntax: the check digits catch transcription errors, but a well-formed code can belong to a different entity or to a lapsed registration. Second, read the status and the dates. A record whose renewal is overdue is still a record of an entity, but the data may not have been confirmed recently, and a claim that depends on current details should say so. Third, keep the unit of the claim straight. An LEI identifies one legal entity. A statement about a brand, a division or a whole corporate group needs a separate basis, such as the Level 2 relationship data, which is itself a reported statement with a date and an exception reason when absent.
A related trap is treating the parent relationship as ownership evidence in the legal sense. The relationship data records accounting consolidation as reported to the issuing organization. It is a useful lead for tracing a group and a poor substitute for the filings that establish control. Systems that store an LEI should store the lookup source and time beside it, so that a reviewer can tell a value observed from the open data pool in one month from a value copied from a counterparty's document in another.
What to keep in the record
When a record cites an LEI, the useful fields are the code, the registered legal name and the registration authority entry returned with it, the registration status, the date the LEI data was last updated, and the date the record was read. For a parent claim, add the relationship type (direct or ultimate), the reported date, and any exception reason that the entity gave for not reporting a parent. Keep the name as returned, even if it differs from the name in the document being reconciled, because the difference is itself evidence for or against a match.
The LEI is often confused with other organizational identifiers. It is not a registry number issued by a company registry, although the LEI record carries the registry number for the entity. It is not a tax number, a listing symbol or a data-vendor key. It is also not a person identifier: individuals acting in a private capacity are generally outside the system, although sole traders and some funds can be registered. Where a document supplies an LEI alongside another identifier, the pair is a stronger basis for a link than either alone.
Questions a reviewer can ask
Which LEI record was read, and on what date? Is the registration status issued, lapsed or retired? When was the entity last confirmed? Does the legal name in the record match the name in the document under review, and if not, is there a documented former name? Does the claim concern the legal entity or something broader, such as a brand or a group? If it concerns a parent, which relationship type was used and what reporting exception, if any, is recorded? Answers to these questions turn an LEI from a label into evidence.
Related terms
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Enquiry
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