ANNA and GLEIF join forces on ISIN LEI initiative

Linking both standards to improve transparency and aid risk and exposure management

London, 4 September 2018 – The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) today have announced the signing of a new initiative to link International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs). The initiative has been created to help improve transparency of exposure by linking the issuer and issuance of securities.

The new, global initiative will map new and legacy ISINs to their corresponding LEIs. By linking the two ISO standards together, firms will be able to aggregate the data required to gain a clear view of their securities exposure within a given issuer and its related entities. Once implemented, the ISIN-to-LEI mapping table will be made freely available to all without restriction on both the GLEIF and ANNA websites.

As the registration authority for the ISIN, ANNA has been responsible for evolving and promoting the ISIN standard through its work and collaboration with members, regulators and the industry at large. As a result, today ISINs are issued in more than 200 jurisdictions worldwide, enabling global cross-border trading and improved transparency. This initiative underlines ANNA’s commitment and mission to promoting the use of standards, including the two ISO standards used in this initiative: ISIN (ISO 6166) and LEI (ISO 17442).

Established in 2014 by the Financial Stability Board, GLEIF is tasked to support the implementation and use of LEIs, to help drive forward transparency within the global financial markets. Public authorities in many jurisdictions rely on the LEI to evaluate risk, take corrective steps and, if required, minimise market abuse and improve the accuracy of financial data. Taking advantage of the open LEI data pool empowers organisations across the board to cut costs, simplify and accelerate operations and gain deeper insight into the global market place. The LEI offers a one-stop approach to identifying legal entities, which has the potential to take the complexity out of business transactions.

Dan Kuhnel, Chairman, ANNA, said, “We are constantly looking at ways to promote standardisation and bring about harmony in the financial industry, and are delighted to work together with GLEIF to link two important ISO standards together. We look forward to working with the National Numbering Agencies to help move this initiative forward into the implementation stage.”

Stephan Wolf, CEO, GLEIF, said, “While the linking of ISINs and LEIs has been mandated by some regulations, we see this new initiative as beneficial to the entire global market, as it is the first big step in having the tools available for aggregation of the data necessary to assist with risk and exposure management.”

ENDS

Media contact for ANNA
Lindsay Clarke
Streets Consulting
+44 (0)20 7959 2235
lindsay.clarke@streetsconsulting.com

Media contact for GLEIF
Meral Ruesing
GLEIF Head of Communications
+49 69 9074999-0
meral.ruesing@gleif.org

About ANNA

Established in 1992 by 22 founding numbering agencies, ANNA is the membership organisation of national numbering agencies, which are operated by depositories, exchanges, government agencies, nationally central data vendors and other financial infrastructure organisations. ANNA also serves as the registration authority for the ISIN and FISN standards, under appointment by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Under ANNA’s stewardship, the role of the ISIN in enabling global financial communications has been established worldwide. ISINs are issued today more than 200 jurisdictions worldwide. In addition, ANNA has developed the Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB), a fully automated global numbering agency to meet the operational and regulatory requirements of the over-the-counter derivatives markets. The number of national numbering agencies and nations working to establish national numbering agencies continues to grow each year, now surpassing 120 jurisdictions globally.  For information about ANNA, its members and activities, please visit anna-web.org.

About GLEIF

Established by the Financial Stability Board in June 2014, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) is tasked to support the implementation and use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). The foundation is backed and overseen by the LEI Regulatory Oversight Committee, representing public authorities from around the globe that have come together to jointly drive forward transparency within the global financial markets. GLEIF is a supra-national not-for-profit organization headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

GLEIF services ensure the operational integrity of the Global LEI System. GLEIF also makes available the technical infrastructure to provide, via an open data license, access to the full global LEI repository free of charge to users.

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