The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) announced the approval of a second India-based Validation Agent (VA), MNS Credit Management Group. It will work as a Validation Agent to Legal Entity Identifier India Ltd. (LEIL), a GLEIF accredited LEI issuer and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd.
MNS is a leading B2B debt management and business information company based in New Delhi, India. By becoming the second VA operating in the region, it will bolster support for LEI issuance amid increasing demand — helping to realize a simpler, faster, and more convenient experience both for its clients and internally.
The VA network now stands at more than 10 organizations globally, spanning Africa, Australasia, China, Europe, India, the Middle East, and North America.
In addition to easing the process of LEI implementation by making LEI issuance more convenient and accessible for customers, becoming a VA can deliver significant advantages for financial institutions themselves. By utilizing ‘business-as-usual’ onboarding processes to obtain LEIs for clients, financial institutions can improve customer experience, facilitate digital transformation, and reduce client lifecycle management costs.
Fresh worldwide impetus for the LEI follows support from key stakeholders advocating for its inclusion within ISO 20022 payment messages to enable more transparent cross-border payments. This includes the Bank for International Settlements’ Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures’ (CPMI) ‘Harmonized ISO 20022 data requirements for enhancing cross-border payments’, alongside the Wolfsberg Group’s updated ‘Payment Transparency Standards’.
In addition, the Swift Payment Market Practice Group (PMPG) has outlined how global adoption of the LEI in ISO 20022 payment messages can support key cross-border use-cases including: sanctions and watch-list screening; KYC and client onboarding; fraud detection and the fight against vendor scams; e-invoice reconciliation; and account-to-account validation.
Stephan Wolf, CEO of GLEIF, said in a statement: “Given widespread industry recognition of the foundational role that the LEI can play in enabling faster, cheaper, more transparent and inclusive cross-border transactions, India’s drumbeat of support for the LEI over recent years offers a compelling precedent—underscoring the potential for jurisdictions around the world to take the fight to global financial crime by driving forward LEI adoption.”
Seema Kumar, director of MNS Credit, said in a statement: “As a Validation Agent, we are committed to leveraging over two decades of local expertise to engage and educate legal entities on the significant opportunities afforded by the LEI, while streamlining the LEI issuance process and reducing onboarding time. This will play a crucial role in mitigating systemic risks, while helping to realize the promise of digital transformation across the Indian marketplace and beyond.”