RapidLEI from Ubisecure, the GLEIF accredited Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) issuer specialising in the automation of the LEI provision process, has reported an LEI growth rate exceeding 135% for the first quarter of 2019. The issuance data, as published by the GLEIF, represents a strong beginning to 2019 for the firm; as well as a boost to the wider LEI initiative following its tie-up with the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA)’s International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs), which went live on April 4, 2019.
The link between the two ISO standards is designed to improve transparency and address regulatory requirements under new regimes such as the Prospective Directive, the CSDR and SFTR – although it has met with a mixed response, as reported in our blog on April 10.
The strong growth of newcomer RapidLEI, however, suggests that LEIs continue to play an important role. The firm launched in June 2018, and after nine full months of operations, shows growth already outpacing the incumbent competition including Bloomberg, DTCC (GMEI Utility) and the London Stock Exchange. In terms of total LEIs issued by all 33 accredited global LEI Issuers, RapidLEI ranked sixth – issuing LEIs to 3,477 companies in Q1 of this year.
Overall, the number of companies issued LEIs by RapidLEI increased from 2,578 at the end of 2018 to 6,310 by the end of the first quarter of 2019 – representing a quarterly growth of 135%. For the same period, RapidLEI’s 135% growth compares to 12% for Bloomberg, 2% for DTCC (GMEI Utility) and 2% for the London Stock Exchange.
The firm has taken on a disruptive approach to the market which could explain its rapid growth. Features of this include a focus on automation technology to make the issuance process faster; and the use of multi-year LEIs (1-5) with annual renewals processed automatically based on automated annual data checks.
RapidLEI is also working on improving its integration technology, and recently launched a same-session LEI issuance API to make it easy for third-party developers to build LEI issuance into their applications and workflows. The first API integrations are expected to go live in Q2.
The firm also reportedly plans to make several announcements in Q2 regarding partnerships with standard-setting bodies and lobby groups in order to connect the LEI ecosystem to other internet security initiatives, so watch this space.
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