EBA consults on the use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launches today a consultation on a Recommendation on the use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). The document will require all entities for which information is required under EU reporting obligations to obtain a pre-Legal Entity Identifier (pre-LEI) code for reporting purposes.

In the course of 2014, the EBA will receive supervisory data for a large sample of banks in the context of the Implementing Technical Standards on Supervisory Reporting (ITS). A single supranational identifier of banks needs to be chosen in order to collect and store the data that will be submitted to the EBA.

There is widespread agreement at global level on the need for a uniform system for legal entities identification. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) coordinates regulatory work at international level to achieve a single system for identifying parties in financial transactions and is taking forward work to launch the Global LEI System (GLEIS). The GLEIS is not yet fully operational, but an increasing number of entities (pre-Local Operating Units, pre-LOUs) already issue LEI-like identifiers (pre-LEIs) that will be eligible to become true LEIs once the GLEIS is fully operational.

The EBA encourages and supports the establishment of the GLEIS. The use of pre-LEIs by the competent authorities when fulfilling their reporting obligations to the EBA will enhance supervisory convergence and ensure the high quality, reliability and comparability of data.