The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) have gone live for the new initiative to start linking International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) for the global financial industry.
The initiative has been created to help improve transparency of exposure by linking the legal issuing entity (Issuer) to their issuance of securities, and to also address some of the regulatory requirements under the Prospective Directive, the CSDR and SFTR.
Over the past nine months, ANNA and GLEIF have worked together on technical developments on how the new global initiative will map ISINs to their corresponding LEIs. A consolidated view of ISIN-LEI links provided by National Numbering Agencies who have opted into the initiative will be provided to the GLEIF by the ANNA Service Bureau (ASB). This published ISIN-to-LEI mapping will be made freely available to all without restriction on the GLEIF website.
11 NNAs (national numbering agencies) have already opted in from the start: OeKB; SIX Financial Information in Belgium and Sweden; WM Datenservice; Nasdaq CSD Iceland; Malta Stock Exchange; Central Securities Clearing System in Nigeria; Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW SA); KDD Central Securities Clearing Corporation in Slovenia; Euroclear Sweden; and London Stock Exchange.
This initiative underlines ANNA’s and GLEIF’s commitment and mission to promote the use of standards, including the two ISO standards used in this initiative: ISIN (ISO 6166) and LEI (ISO 17442). By linking the two ISO standards together, firms will be able to aggregate data to gain a clear view of their securities exposure for a given issuer and its related entities.
As the registration authority for the ISIN, ANNA has been responsible for evolving and promoting the ISIN standard through its work and collaboration with members, regulators and the industry at large. As a result, ISINs are issued today in more than 200 jurisdictions worldwide, enabling efficient global cross-border trading and improved transparency.
Established in 2014 by the Financial Stability Board, the GLEIF is tasked to support the implementation and use of LEIs, to help drive forward transparency within the global financial markets. Public authorities in many jurisdictions rely on the LEI to evaluate risk, take corrective steps as well as improve the accuracy of financial data in order to minimise the risk of market abuse.