The US watchdog enlisted the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Swift to build the portal for assigning CFTC Interim Compliant Identifiers (CICIs) earlier this year.

The portal will eventually issue codes complying with the global framework for a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) system that is being developed at the behest of the Financial Stability Board and G20.

The FSB has called the establishment of an LEI system a key 'building block' for achieving future financial stability and regulatory objectives, helping to measure and manage systemic risk.

The site developed by DTCC and Swift builds on the test files of the provisional LEIs provided to the industry in February. It now contains the full database of such identifiers assigned to date, some 24,000 legal entities from over 80 countries, heavily weighted towards those involved in OTC derivatives trading.

Included on the site are instructions on searching for information, downloading the daily change files or full database that will be available immediately, registering entities for CICIs, certifying the reference data for legal entities already assigned a CICI, public challenges of reference data and other helpful information.

With the launch of the portal, the site will now allow legal entities to self-register, and financial firms to register their counterparties.

William Hodash, MD, business development, DTCC, says: "A standard way of identifying counterparties will help regulators and market participants better aggregate risk and exposures on a global scale."

The FSB has set a tight timeframe for implementation of the global system, with the goal of establishing it by the end of 2012 with operational functionality by March 2013.