Commonwealth Bank of Australia Approved as LEI Validation Agent

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has become a Validation Agent in the Global Legal Entity Identifier System (GLEIS). It is the first agent in Australia and the second announced this month following the appointment of MNS Credit Management Group in Delhi, India.

CBA’s approval as a Validation Agent comes ahead of a regulation update by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) on OTC derivative transaction reporting that will come into force in October 2024 and mandate the LEI as the only permitted entity identifier for counterparty identification. This will phase out use of the dated Avox International Business Entity Identifier (AVID) and the more commonly used Business Identifier Code (BIC) and drive up adoption of the LEI. The aim of the change is to increase alignment with global market practices to reduce costs and complexity, while addressing the challenge of identifying smaller, non-financial counterparties.

There are now 15 Validation Agents globally spanning Africa, Australia, China, Europe, India, the Middle East, and North America. The Validation Agent Framework enables financial institutions and other supervised organisations involved in legal entity identity verification and validation to obtain and maintain LEIs for their clients in cooperation with accredited LEI Issuers.

“The continued expansion of the Validation Agent network demonstrates the value derived by both agent organisations and their clients in helping to deliver trust with increased simplicity, convenience, and expediency,” says Stephan Wolf, CEO of the Global LEI Foundation (GLEIF). “GLEIF endorses and welcomes CBA’s commitment to proactively support its clients in getting ahead of the LEI adoption curve.”

CBA is also championing broader industry efforts to harmonise the use of identifiers to promote greater transparency and contribute to the fight against financial crime across the global economy. Market traction stems from the support of key stakeholders advocating the inclusion of the LEI within ISO 20022 payment messages. These include the Bank for International Settlements’ Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures’ (CPMI) and its Harmonized ISO 20022 data requirements for enhancing cross-border payments, and the Wolfsberg Group’s updated Payment Transparency Standards.