ANNA and GLEIF win ‘Best Reference Data Newcomer’

London, 21st September 2020 – The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) today announce they have won the ‘Best Reference Data Newcomer’ category in Waters Technology’s Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data 2020 Awards.

The award recognises the achievement of ANNA and GLEIF’s successful initiative, which links International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) for the benefit of the global financial industry. The initiative has been established to help market participants improve risk management through transparency of exposure by linking the legal issuing entity to their issuance of securities, and to also support firms’ requirements to fulfil regulatory obligations.

Max Bowie from Waters Technology, said: “ANNA and GLEIF have been awarded this recognition for a high quality and useful link between two very important ISO standards, ISIN (ISO 6166) and LEI (ISO 17442). By linking the two ISO standards together, firms are able to aggregate data to gain a clear view of their securities exposure for a given issuer and its related entities. The success of this initiative merited the win in our ‘Best Reference Data Newcomer’ category.”

Over the past eighteen months, ANNA and GLEIF have worked to bring about increased harmony in the financial markets by promoting further standardisation and availability of essential data. The published ISIN-to-LEI mapping is freely available to all as open source data – without restriction – on the GLEIF website. 19 NNAs have already opted in from the start, with more to follow in the coming months. To date, over 5.2 million ISINs have been linked to over 70,000 unique LEIs. These linkages have been voluntarily provided by NNAs, with ISIN coverage across 26 jurisdictions.

Uwe Meyer, Executive Director & Secretariat, ANNA, said, “We are delighted that this GLEIF and ANNA initiative has won ‘Best Reference Data Newcomer’ from Waters Technology and are pleased that our work is leading to further utilisation of data standards which benefit the market as a whole. Our work with National Numbering Agencies and their commitment in providing the ISIN-LEI linkage has made this initiative an incredible achievement and testament to the collaboration within the industry.”

Stephan Wolf, CEO, GLEIF, said, “GLEIF is thrilled to win this award from Waters Technology. By aggregating ISIN and LEI data with ANNA, the industry will continue to improve transparency and efficiency. We are excited to see the continued integration and uptake of the service so that market participants can better see their exposure by having data on the issuer and issuance of securities in one place.”

More information:

For a list of the NNA’s who have opted in to the ISIN-LEI initiative please visit ANNA’s ISIN – LEI page

GLEIF’s ISIN-LEI file is available for download here

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.

About the Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data Awards

The annual Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data Awards, now in their 17th year, play a key role in WatersTechnology’s awards program, and are the only awards that feature a mix of call-for-entry categories determined by a panel of judges and categories compiled by WatersTechnology’s journalists and voted on by the brand’s readership. This year’s awards featured 32 categories in total: 21 call-for-entry categories, 10 journalist-compiled categories, and a hall of fame (lifetime achievement) award, the recipient of which was Mike Meriton, co-founder of the EDM Council and former CEO of GoldenSource.