About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Cusip Outlines Role for Fellow NNAs in Hybrid Approach to LEI

Subscribe to our newsletter

Following proposals for a federated approach (from the Financial Stability Board) and a centralised approach (from DTCC/Sifma) to development of the global legal entity identifier (LEI) standard, Cusip Global Services (CGS) is proposing a hybrid solution that calls for the active involvement of the National Number Agencies in the LEI process. The proposal is aimed at combining the openness of the FSB proposal with the data-checks and security of the Sifma/DTCC proposal.

Cusip’s board of trustees, CGS sponsor the American Bankers’ Association (ABA) and Cusip chair Jane Washington, vice president of operations at Wells Fargo, are proposing making the National Numbering Agencies responsible for data integrity and ID creation, while allowing the marketplace to access this information through whatever means they choose.

The proposal was presented at the Cusip Board of Trustees’ meeting in New York today. CGS has to date actively participated in ISO and industry working groups to develop the 20-character LEI technical standard that was recommended by the FSB at the G20 global summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, last month.

At its own meeting, the Cusip Board of Trustees recommended that global regulators and market authorities embrace the possible contribution to the LEI effort offered by the existing infrastructure and issuer relationships maintained by CGS and its fellow National Numbering Agencies. CGS is a founding member of ANNA, the Association of National Numbering Agencies, a federation of 118 members providing unique (ISIN) instrument identifiers globally for more than 16 million securities.

According to Cusip Board chair Washington, “Given the critical role that CGS and other global NNAs play in uniquely identifying Issuers, Obligors and securities, the Board cannot imagine a successful and robust LEI global solution without the active collaboration and input from CGS and other key numbering agencies.”

The Cusip Board also cited CGS’s provenance over primary source documentation for every identifier in its system as another key advantage in leveraging the existing numbering agency processes to the collective benefit of the global LEI community. Data quality and primary sourcing of company address information is under heightened scrutiny as a result of the LEI initiative, and traditional country registries have come under fire for the lack of standardisation and update latency in some jurisdictions.

The 18-member Cusip Board of Trustees is comprised of senior-level executives from banks, securities firms and securities depositories, representing leading financial institutions in the capital markets.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: In data we trust – How to ensure high quality data to power AI

Artificial intelligence is increasingly powering financial institutions’ processes and workflows, encompassing all parts of the enterprise from front-office to the back-office. As organisations seek to gain a competitive edge, they are trialling the technology in variety of ways to streamline and empower multiple use cases. Some are further than others along the path to achieving...

BLOG

FinScan Data Quality Chief Seeks to End Compliance Failure Excuses

The dog ate my homework. The train was delayed. The postman mislaid your birthday card. At one time or another, we’ve all used a weak excuse to forestall censure for an error of behaviour or judgement. And mostly, we’ve got away with it. In financial regulatory compliance, however, excuses won’t wash. Especially when it comes...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit New York

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

GUIDE

Entity Data Management Handbook – Fifth Edition

Welcome to the fifth edition of A-Team Group’s Entity Data Management Handbook, sponsored for the fourth year running by entity data specialist Bureau van Dijk, a Moody’s Analytics Company. The past year has seen a crackdown on corporate responsibility for financial crime – with financial firms facing draconian fines for non-compliance and the very real...