17 Jan The Role of Legal Entity Identifier in UK
LEI Lookup
Legal Entity Identifier
An LEI is a 20-character alphanumeric global reference number which is unique to each legal entity. It is used as an identifier when any investment activity is carried out by a legal entity. It is also used to track investments where an investment firm undertakes investment activity on the entity’s behalf.
However, individuals need not register and have an LEI number to carry out investments.
News for the UK and European Union in LEI
The LEI enables regulatory authorities in the UK and European Union (EU) to monitor trading activity and check in on market abuse.
A new European Union Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation took effect on 3rd January 2018. This new directive made all legal entities such as charities, companies, trusts, and partnerships to have to necessarily have a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) if they want to trade on financial markets in the UK.
The Role of LEI in the UK
It is the responsibility of each legal entity to obtain their own LEI(Legal Entity Identifier), by contacting any one of their Local operating units. It is sometimes done by the investment firms on behalf of their clients and may charge the legal entity for doing so.
In the UK, the London Stock Exchange Group is the regulatory body from whom an LEI can be obtained. They have a specific template that can be used for this purpose.
Below are the charges for LEI and the annual renewal:
- Initial Fee: £115 + VAT
- Annual Renewal: £70 + VAT
In other words, the London Stock Exchange is an authorized LOU for the global allocation of LEIs.
London stock exchange is one of the largest LEI issuers globally.
What is UnaVista?
- UnaVista is London Stock Exchange Group’s global hosted platform that performs all the matching, validation and reconciliation needs of the group.
- Through one interface, it offers a range of business solutions designed to help firms become more efficient and reduce operational and regulatory risk.
- UnaVista’s Rules Engine can help many organizations find solutions to manage the risks associated with formatting and validation of raw data.
- UnaVista’s Rules Engine has a built -in logic to assist you with multiple regulations.
- UnaVista is that multi-faceted platform that helps you in many ways.
Benefits of the London Stock Exchange as LOU
One- stop for all LEI data
The LEI user interface (UnaVista) provides an advanced look-up service to access all LEI reference data in one database. Thanks, to this interface, which helps you to view, filter, manipulate and extract data which has been consolidated through a single tool. Hence providing a one-stop solution
Accuracy
The LEI records are cross-referenced before LEI creation to ensure avoidance of duplicate LEIs. The consolidated LEI database and cross-referencing ensure accuracy and transparency.
Reliability
The LEI records from an amalgamated database, cross-referenced and validating an entity against global sources is carried out, making sure the LEI obtained is unique, accurate and reliable.
Experience In the Industry
London Stock Exchange is one of the oldest stock exchanges. It has contributed a lot to the development of international standards for the financial services industry and enabled companies from around the world to raise money from outside investors.
The London Stock Exchange group had participated in the ISO process for the development and creation of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)- (ISO 17442:2012).
Their continuous participation as LOU (Local Operating Units) and helping in the international standards working groups ensure that they are up to date and have good subject matter knowledge.
They are also, UK’s National Numbering Agency, which means they provide and maintain International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) and Classification Of Financial Instruments (CFI) reference data, With over 20 years of experience in validating and maintaining data they utilize this rich experience to provide legal entities and investors with high-quality data and knowledgeable service.
Advanced functionality
With the London Stock exchange using an advanced platform like UnaVista which is a hosted matching and reconciliation platform, the LEIs are allocated based on this unique platform.
One can access the following information on registration:
- LEI database search from anywhere in the world
- Request LEI allocation
Simple and Consumable data format
Often huge volumes of data are provided in a format that is not available for ready consumption and needs further investment and time. But with London Stock Exchange being an LOU, all global LEI data is in a single place. It is consolidated and provided as a downloadable file.
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