The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) and Nord vLEI announced that Nord vLEI has become the first European-based Qualified vLEI Issuer (QVI) within the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) ecosystem. Nord vLEI is a subsidiary of NordLEI, the leading LEI issuer in Scandinavia and eighth largest globally, with more than 165,000 LEIs issued since 2014.
The vLEI is a new form of digitized organizational identity that meets the global need for automated authentication and verification of legal entities across a variety of industries. By wrapping new and existing LEIs in digital credentials that can be verified, the vLEI offers a digitally trustworthy version of the LEI which can be used to verify the identities of legal entities and their authorized representatives across a rapidly growing number of automated interactions. The vLEI can be used as a signing tool for corporate, digital identity and persons with delegated signing authority rights.
Using the vLEI, government organizations, companies, and all legal entities will be able to confirm ownership structures and authorized representations in a growing number of digital business activities. Examples of known use cases include approving business transactions and contracts, onboarding customers, transacting within import/export and supply chain business networks, and submitting regulatory filings and reports.
The vLEI ecosystem utilizes the existing Global LEI System as the only open, standardized, and regulatory-endorsed system for legal entity identification. It is based on the Trust over IP Governance metamodel and leverages open standards including the ACDC (Authentic Chained Data Container) specification, the KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure) protocol for key management, and the CESR (Composable Event Streaming Representation) capabilities for secure digital signing.
By using secure credentials and open standards, the vLEI creates a verifiable link between an organization and its representatives. These digital credentials are not only tamper-resistant but also verifiable in a decentralized manner, providing an ideal foundation on which to establish a secure chain of trust with GLEIF at the root.
There are two types of vLEI organizational credentials in the vLEI ecosystem that can be issued to authorized representatives of an organization; the Official Organization Role (OOR), which leverages the ISO 5009 standard and can be verified by the organization and against public sources; and the Engagement Context Role (ECR), which are credentials defined and verified by the vLEI holder itself. Combining these three concepts – the organization’s identity, represented by the LEI, a person’s identity, and the role that the person plays for the organization, means that vLEI credentials can be issued.
Anders Åström, CEO and Co-founder of NordLEI, said in a statement: “Nord vLEI is proud to lead the way as the first QVI based in Europe. The strength of the global economy lies in its transparency and trust. The vLEI enables functional, reliable, and ethical interactions on a scale never seen before and significantly reduces the potential for fraud and inefficiencies. As a QVI we will deliver the same quality as we have come to be known for with NordLEI.”
Rickard Israelsson, co-founder of NordLEI, said in a statement: “Achieving the status as a Qualified vLEI Issuer affirms our vision of being at the forefront of the digital transformation in identification and authentication, something we have been striving for since the inception of NordLEI in 2014. The vLEI makes trustworthy and reliable digital transactions and interactions possible and efficient.”
Stephan Wolf, CEO of GLEIF, said in a statement: “The vLEI has truly universal applicability due to its unparalleled capacity to bridge the trust deficits that inhibit digital transactions and interactions. Welcoming Nord vLEI as a QVI marks an important step forward for the vLEI ecosystem, reaffirming our ongoing commitment to developing the supporting infrastructure to establish the vLEI as a fundamental enabler of digital trust across the global economy.”