US Treasury official to oversee LEI project

30 January 2013 | 3900 views | 2 Stock exchange screen 2

An official of the US Treasury Department's Office of Financial Research (OFR) has been selected to be chair of an international committee overseeing the launch of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), a global standard for financial data.

Matthew Reed, OFR chief counsel since March 2012, was named chair of the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) for the global LEI system.

Reed took on the post at the inaugural meeting of the ROC last week in Toronto, which included global authorities from more than 50 countries and jurisdictions. Vice chairs were elected from the Japan Financial Service Agency and Banque de France.

OFR director Richard Berne, comments: "The selection of the ROC chair and vice chairs signals that the LEI is moving forward quickly with engagement across countries and market sectors, and will serve as a template for future standardisation efforts."

The LEI is a code that uniquely identifies parties to financial transactions and is designed to provide financial companies and market regulators with a better view of true exposures and counterparty risks across the world's financial system.

The ROC as a stand-alone body has taken over the responsibility for the leadership and direction of the global LEI project from the Financial Stability Board ahead of a planned March 2013 start-date.

Comments: (2)

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A Finextra member | 31 January, 2013, 08:57

It's good to see further progress but it would be great to understand when a global distribution system will be in place.

At the moment we have DTCC/Swift providing a CC but as I understand it, they do not have a global remit as there has been political demand for a "federated" system of distributing LEIs.

Keen to know the end date!

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Gary Wright - BISS Research - London | 01 February, 2013, 18:42

In real terms this is rapid progress and we should see more details rolled out throughout this year. FS firms must plan for this project this year with databases and account opening and other processes ammended. There is enough information to start planning. Its likely to be a very fast end as LEI hits the global markets. So dont get caught with your firms pants down

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