Who is an LEI Registration Agent?
An LEI Registration Agent helps legal entities seeking an LEI number. GLEIF introduced the concept of Registration Agents to streamline the issuance of LEIs further. A Registration Agent’s success is solely determined by their ability to offer competitive prices and simplify their clients’ LEI registration or renewal process.
Global Legal Entity System (GLEIS)
In response to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the Group of Twenty (G20) called on the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to provide recommendations for a global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) and a supporting governance structure. This gave rise to the development of the Global LEI System, which, through the issuance of LEIs, now provides unique identification of legal entities participating in global financial transactions.
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Global Legal Entity Foundation (GLEIF)
From there, a not-for-profit organisation, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), was created to support the implementation and use of the LEI. GLEIF services are in charge of establishing operational integrity within the Global LEI System.
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Local Operating Unit (LOU)
Authorised organisations issue LEIs called Local Operating Units (LOUs). You’ll find a list of LEI issuing organisations on the GLEIF website.
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Registration Agent
To further streamline the issuance of LEIs, GLEIF introduced the concept of the Registration Agent. Their role is to help legal entities like you who are looking to obtain an LEI number. Registration Agents success is determined by the efficiency of their systems and by how well they can simplify and accommodate their clients’ LEI registration or renewal process.
LEI issuing organisations’ Registration Agents are listed under each LEI issuing organisation’s basic information on the GLEIF website.
LEI pricing structure
The fees charged for issuing and maintaining an LEI are entirely a matter of the LOU or Registration Agent. The Global LEI System (GLEIS) has been set up so that the LEI cost can differ among various service providers. This is done to encourage healthy competition and benefit the end customer. Since the number needs to be updated yearly, the costs will increase. For this reason, we encourage you to pay close attention to the price and take it as the primary factor when registering an LEI number.
What you often don’t hear about LEIs is that the organisation’s charging structure determines the LEI prices and has nothing to do with the value of the LEI number itself. The number is simply a tool that enables you to easily identify active legal entities in the financial market.
To keep the GLEIF running, they surcharge 11 USD per LEI application for 1 year. The next organisation to add to the price is an LEI issuer, an LOU. Last in line is a Registration Agent, whose prices are often determined by the cost of the LEI they receive from their LOU.
How are LEI Register’s prices so low?
LEI Register is an official Registration Agent. Since early 2018, we have been helping legal entities apply for new LEI numbers or transfer and renew existing LEI numbers. We have successfully pursued our goal of making the LEI registration process simple, automated, fast, and affordable.
At LEI Register, we keep our profit margins low and believe in building long-term business relationships.
