The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has added two validation agents to the Global Legal Entity Identifier System, bringing the global total of agents able to provide their clients with LEIs to 10. The additions are Sparkasse Bank Malta, a European bank offering corporate and private banking, investment, and custody services; and Diligencia, a UK-based provider of corporate intelligence and due diligence solutions in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
GLEIF introduced the validation agent framework in September 2020, to enable banks and other regulated institutions to use their KYC and AML onboarding procedures to help clients obtain LEIs. J.P. Morgan became the first validation agent in November 2020.
Both Sparkasse Bank Malta and Diligencia partnered with Ubisecure, an LEI issuer, to become validation agents. Simon Wood, CEO at Ubisecure, says: “We have worked closely with the GLEIF and our validation agent partners to develop a good solution – an API first, automated platform that ensures agents can register LEIs without friction and at massive scale.”
Managing Director at Sparkasse Bank Malta, Paul Mifsud, says approval as a validation agent enables the bank to streamline its approach to client lifecycle management, enhance customer experience, and establish a foundation to create new value-added services for corporate clients.
In line with GLEIF’s objective to increase voluntary LEI adoption outside mandated use cases, the validation agent role was designed for not only banks and financial institutions, but also organisations that performs relevant validation and verification practices using accurate data, based exclusively on primary sources.
Diligencia fits in here. Managing director Nouri Bakkali, comments: “There is enormous potential for the MEA region to lead the way in terms of LEI issuance growth as global investors seek the transparency, trust, and confidence needed to engage with markets such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey.”
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