The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) subsidiary operating the Global Markets Entity Identifier (GMEI) utility continues to operate as the largest legal entity identifier (LEI) issuer, by share of the total LEIs issued worldwide, in the run-up to MiFID II implementation.
It has issued more than 240,000 LEIs to entities from over 200 jurisdictions, representing approximately 50 per cent share. The GMEI utility recently received accreditation from the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), which reflects that DTCC has sufficient capabilities in place to ensure high data quality in the Global LEI System (GLEIS).
In addition, SIX Securities Services, which runs the central securities depository (CSD) for Switzerland, is currently collaborating with DTCC’s GMEI utility to promote the registration and renewal of LEIs by Swiss entities.
The GMEI utility also collaborates with registration agents: CUSIP Global Services (CGS) and TMX’s Canadian Depository for Securities (CDS) in North America as well as NordLEI in Europe.
“LEIs are a critical tool to uniquely and unambiguously identify legal entities to help regulators and market participants aggregate and better understand exposures, enhance market transparency and significantly improve the analysis of systemic risk,” says Ron Jordan (pictured), managing director of data services at DTCC. “With the dominant market share and having received GLEIF accreditation, the GMEI utility continues to play a critical role as new financial regulations, globally, increasingly mandate the use of LEIs – and we look forward to working with SIX as firms prepare for MiFID II and beyond.”
“The upcoming revision to MiFID II/MiFIR, i.e. ‘no LEI, no trade,’ will alter the post-trade landscape. Regarding transaction reporting under MiFIR, ESMA’s guidance is for investment firms to obtain an LEI from their clients prior to providing services. It requires all legal entities involved in the trade, including the executing, submitting or transmitting firm, on both the buy- and sell-side, to supply their LEIs in their European trade reporting, which effectively impacts all firms globally,” says Eugene Ing, executive director of data services at DTCC. “We expect the pace of new registrations and renewals to increase sharply, and in response we have streamlined the process for clients at www.gmeitutility.org. In addition to preparing for an anticipated increase in volume, we are updating our systems and all of our processes to support the mid-2017 requirement to begin collecting and validating information on direct and ultimate parents of registered entities.”
