The Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) of the global Legal Entity Identifier system (GLEIS) made headway over the holiday season, endorsing a number of pre-Local Operating Units (LOUs) and listing national business registries that have confirmed there are no impediments to entities and pre-LOUs using their information as part of the reference data attached to each LEI.
Since early December 2013, the ROC has endorsed five pre-LOUs, adding to the first five that were endorsed in October and November 2013. To become an endorsed pre-LOU, an organisation must be sponsored by an ROC member that can demonstrate to the ROC that the pre-LOU meets the principles for the creation of an interim LEI system that were set down by the ROC in July 2013. LEIs issued by pre-LOUs that have been endorsed by the ROC are acceptable to ROC authorities requiring the use of a common identifier.
While the interim LEI system continues to be built out with more endorsed pre-LOUs and operational guidance from the ROC, a complete and final system has yet to emerge as the Global LEI Foundation (GLEIF) that will operate the Central Operating Unit (COU), a pivotal element of the system, has yet to be established. The board directors of the foundation were expected to be named by the ROC towards the end of last year, but this has yet to happen. Back in November, the chairs of the ROC stated: “The LEI ROC is working hard to complete the establishment of the GLEIS and its operating layer – the GLEIF that will operate the COU. Currently, the LEI ROC is preparing all legal and financial documents necessary for the establishment of the Swiss non-for-profit foundation. Once the legal and administrative processes are completed, the GLEIF and its board of directors will be in place. Until the official establishment of the GLEIF, the LEI ROC is not in a position to disclose any information on the list of directors.”
The five pre-LOUs that have been endorsed by the ROC since early December 2013 and are issuing LEI codes are: the Irish Stock Exchange, sponsored by the Central Bank of Ireland; the Russian National Settlement Depository, sponsored by the Central Bank of Russia; the Polish Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Warto?ciowych, sponsored by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority; the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, sponsored by the Netherlands Authority for Financial Markets; and the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland, sponsored by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority.
These pre-LOUs add to five previously endorsed pre-LOUs, namely the CICI Utility operated by DTCC, WM Datenservice, the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, Takasbank and the London Stock Exchange.
The list of national business registries confirming that there are no obstacles to the use of registry data as part of an LEI’s reference data spans all continents of the world and is the outcome of a letter from the secretariat of the ROC to business registries in early November 2013. The letter explained the use of business registry information in the GLEIS, stating: “Under the global LEI initiative, each registered entity is allocated a unique 20-digit code, which is linked to a minimal set of information necessary to provide unique identification of the entity. Alongside elements such as the name and legal address, a vital role in the global identification system is also envisaged for the business registration number of the entity and the business registry reference where the entity is formed, as in many jurisdictions such registration defines and provides the proof of the existence of the legal entity. The proposed approach is that each entity applying for an LEI code would supply the required reference data to their preferred LOU, including their business registration number and name of the business registry, where available.”
