The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) announced the publication of its verifiable LEI (vLEI) Ecosystem Governance Framework. The first real-world vLEI applications are expected to go live in 2022.
The vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework, which has been designed from the ground up to complement GLEIF’s existing LEI governance, defines the vLEI operational model and describes how the new ecosystem’s range of vLEI issuing stakeholders will qualify for and perform their roles in the Global LEI System.
A year in the making, the Framework has been created in full accordance with standards and recommendations of the Trust Over IP Foundation (ToIP), hosted by the Linux Foundation. It is the most comprehensive framework ever developed based on the ToIP Governance Metamodel. It provides essential detail on the governance structures and processes that will shape the development of the vLEI ecosystem together with the services that GLEIF will provide, including the vLEI Issuer Qualification Program, essential key and credential management services, and a communications platform for information sharing between GLEIF and its network of vLEI issuers.
The current rate of digital transformation, together with the growth in the global digital economy, has created an urgent unmet need for greater security, convenience, and ease-of-use in digital identity for organizations and the persons that represent them in either official or functional roles.
Through the vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework, GLEIF has established itself as the guardian and gatekeeper of a new, standardized, and decentralized system that answers this worldwide need. By wrapping new and existing LEIs in Verifiable Credentials, the vLEI offers a digitally trustworthy version of the LEI, allowing automated verification of legal entities and their authorized representatives, without the need for human intervention.
The vLEI leverages the Global LEI System, which is the only open, standardized, and regulatory-endorsed system for legal entity identification.
Stephan Wolf, CEO at GLEIF, said in a statement: “The LEI has a critical role to play in today’s digital world through its ability to provide organizations with unique, permanent identification globally. This (is) especially is important in the context of identifying legal entities involved in digital transactions, where manual background checks inflate costs and cause huge unnecessary delays.”
“By choosing to base the vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework on the ToIP Governance Metamodel, GLEIF is helping ensure the maximum global interoperability of vLEI credentials,” said Drummond Reed, steering committee member from the Trust over IP Foundation, in a statement.
The vLEI system is expected to give government organizations, companies, and other legal entities worldwide the capacity to use non-repudiable identification data pertaining to their legal status, ownership structure and authorized representatives in a growing multitude of digital business activities, such as approving business transactions and contracts, onboarding customers, transacting within import/export and supply chain business networks, and submitting regulatory filings and reports.
A wide range of industry specific vLEI use-cases have already been identified by stakeholders participating in GLEIF’s cross-industry vLEI development program, launched in December 2020. Several of these are now entering the proof-of-concept trial phase and GLEIF expects to share further details throughout 2022, as these initiatives mature.