GLEIF stands for Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, a non-profit organization founded to facilitate the implementation and use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). This foundation was established in 2014 by the Financial Stability Board, and its headquarters are in Switzerland.
The creation of the GLEIF was an initiative by the G20, which wanted to create a common identifier that can be relied on to determine the legitimacy of any entity that intends to do business in the various financial markets around the world.
It acts as the main overseer of a network of partners and the different LEI issuing organizations to provide trusted services and reliable LEI data that they use to issue, renew, and authenticate legal entity identifiers in real-time. All the information that the business submits while applying and renewing their LEIs is stored on GLEIF’s database.
What role does GLEIF play
The primary role of the GLEI is to facilitate all operations that are related to the issuing and the use of Legal Entity Identifiers. Below are some of the services that GLEIF offers while playing this role:
- It is the database for all LEI data: All the information that entities provide while applying and renewing their LEI numbers is stored on GLEIF’s database. It is also the role of GLEIF to ensure safe and fast access to this data to anyone who needs it, including the general public, because LEI data is a public good that anyone has free access to. Any interested parties can search for any information in the LEI data pool using the web-based search tool developed by GLEIF.
- Evaluating the stability of organizations that want to become an LEI issue: All the Local Operating Units (LOUs) that issue Legal Entity Identifiers have to be thoroughly sieved by the GLEIF before being allowed to issue LEIs to entities within their respective regions.
- Gradually optimizing the quality of the data pool: Besides being the main database of LEI information, GLEIF has to ensure continuous improvement in the quality and reliability of data in the LEI data pool.
- Ensuring access to LEI data is free for everyone: It is also the role of the GLEIF to ensure that access to LEI data by the general public and any interested parties is free. It also has an API that any website or application can use to enable its users to search for LEI data for free.
For more details about all the services provided by GLEIF, here is the entire catalog of all the services provided by GLEIF.