The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has welcomed the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) as a validation agent in the Global Legal Entity Identifier system.
CBA is the organisation’s first Australia-based validation agent, and will work to champion broader industry efforts to harmonise the use of identifiers to promote greater transparency and prevent financial crime across the global economy.
GLEIF’s validation agent framework enables financial institutions and other supervised organisations involved in legal entity identity verification and validation to obtain and maintain legal entity identifiers (LEIs) for their clients in cooperation with accredited LEI Issuers.
The number of validation agents globally for GLEIF has increased to 15, with the network now spanning Africa, Australia, China, Europe, India, the Middle East and North America.
Key local initiatives shaping LEI adoption include updated over-the-counter (OTC) derivative transaction reporting rules from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).
Due to come into force in October 2024, the regulation mandates the LEI as the only permitted entity identifier for counterparty identification, phasing out the use of the AVID code and business identifier code (BIC).
GLEIF says this will increase alignment with global market practices to reduce costs and complexity, while helping to address the challenge of identifying smaller, non-financial counterparties.
GLEIF CEO Stephan Wolf says: “The continued expansion of the validation agent network further demonstrates the value derived for both the agent organisation and their clients, helping to deliver trust with increased simplicity, convenience and expediency.
“With industry momentum for the LEI gathering pace across the globe, GLEIF fully endorses and welcomes CBA’s commitment to proactively support its clients in getting ahead of the LEI adoption curve.”
