Luxembourg Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) service now operational
LuxCSD’s Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) issuance service for Luxembourg-domiciled entities and investment funds is now operational and accessible via luxcsd.com.
The Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) – a committee of global regulators – has endorsed LuxCSD as a pre-local operating unit (LOU) to issue LEIs. The ROC endorsement is a prerequisite for using Luxembourg LEIs for reporting financial transactions on an international level rather than just for domestic transactions. All EU counterparties entering into derivative trades are required to have an LEI to meet the reporting obligations under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
To fulfil its new mandate, LuxCSD has engaged in a strategic collaboration with DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) to provide the infrastructure for the LuxCSD LEI services. The combination of LuxCSD’s local expertise to assist Luxembourg entities in obtaining LEIs and to support the validation requirements set by the ROC and the proven capabilities of the Global Markets Entity Identifier (GMEI) utility, operated by DTCC in collaboration with SWIFT, will provide Luxembourg with a truly federated and robust model.
The LEI is a 20-digit code that connects to key reference information, enabling the clear and unique identification of legal entities and/or fund companies in global financial markets. The ROC has allocated the 4-digit prefix #2221 to LuxCSD.
Patrick Georg, General Manager of LuxCSD, said: “Our new mandate to run the Luxembourg LEI issuance service allows us to assist local market participants in complying with the reporting requirements for domestic and cross-border transactions under EMIR and all other reporting requirements throughout the world. We will actively engage with relevant industry organisations in Luxembourg to shape the LEI service for the Luxembourg market and to convey the views of the Luxembourg market to the Regulatory Oversight Committee as well as to the Global LEI Foundation."
Further information: luxcsd.com
Note to editors
The Global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) initiative
Following the 2008 crisis and the complicated analysis of positions and transactions that this caused, public authorities and the financial industry agreed to put in place a uniform global system for legal entity identification. For regulators, the LEI helps to increase their systemic risk analysis capabilities and the aggregation of risk exposures, and thus financial stability. For the industry it will make the aggregation of risks and hence risk management in firms more accurate. When a financial entity that is a counterparty on financial transactions is under financial pressure, the analysis by regulators and its counterparties would be facilitated as the LEIs would make it possible to identify the legal owner of holdings and ultimately, in future phases, accurately map the relationships between the entity, its parents and its affiliates, guarantors and obligors.
The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a 20-digit, alpha-numeric code that connects to key reference information that enables clear and unique identification of companies participating in global financial markets.
The Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) is a committee of authorities from around the world working to coordinate and oversee the global system of legal entity identification.
The ROC, a stand-alone committee established after recommendations by the international Financial Stability Board (FSB) and subsequent endorsement by the Group of 20 (G-20) nations, held its inaugural meeting in January 2013. Endorsed by the G20, the Global LEI System (GLEIS) infrastructure will enable regulators and organisations to more efficiently manage their exposures and risk.
The ROC oversees the GLEIS so that "there is a unique identifier for each entity that registers, and that there are reliable, while flexible, operational principles and standards applied to the origination and maintenance of an LEI."
Pre-LOUs (Local Operating Units) are the local implementers of the global system within a federated operating model. The ROC-endorsed pre-LOUs will become LOUs when the Global LEI Foundation implements the COU (Central Operating Unit) and the ROC declares the Global LEI System fully operational.
About DTCC’s the Global Markets Entity Identifier (GMEI) utility
The Global Market Entity Identifier (GMEI) utility, formerly known as the CICI utility, is DTCC’s (The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s) Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) solution offered in collaboration with SWIFT. The GMEI utility is designed to create and apply a single, universal standard identifier to any organisation or firm involved in a financial transaction globally and was developed in response to the financial crisis of 2008-2009 after governments and regulators called for new financial market regulation.
DTCC and SWIFT designed the GMEI utility with the assistance of a consortium of 14 global financial services organisations led by the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). It is designed to meet global requirements across all asset classes. The solution went live in August 2012, and has since been endorsed at a global level by the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC), the global group of regulators established by the Group of 20 (G20) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to oversee development of the Global LEI System. This endorsement means that codes assigned by the GMEI utility are now recognised as pre-LEIs by all of the more than 50 regulators that are members of the ROC. The GMEI utility operates as a pre-Local Operating Unit within the Global LEI System.
The website for the GMEI utility is www.gmeiutility.org.