The GMEI Utility is expected to continue to grow as global regulators increasingly mandate the use of LEIs. EU regulations, including Markets in Financial Instruments Directive/Regulation (MiFID/R), European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), Securities Finance Transactions Regulation (SFTR) and Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR), require the use of LEIs in their reporting architecture. Greater demand for LEIs is also expected to come from forthcoming rule changes in the U.S. e.g. the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s proposed rules to modernize reporting for registered investment companies.

The GMEI Utility, which is an LOU operating within the Global Legal Entity Identifier System (GLEIS) and has played a major role in the increased issue of LEIs around the world, creates and assigns globally-accepted LEIs in a standard format (ISO 17442); validates the accuracy of the associated reference data; and stores it in a public database free for all to use and redistribute. LEIs are a critical tool to uniquely and unambiguously identify legal entities to help regulators and market participants aggregate and better understand exposures, enhance market transparency and significantly improve the analysis of global systemic risk.

In July last year, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) confirmed that it had issued an Order extending the designation of the GMEI Utility as the provider of LEIs pursuant to the CFTC’s swap data recordkeeping and reporting rules, while the GLEIS becomes fully operational. In addition, last month, CUSIP Global Services (CGS), the U.S. National Numbering Agency (NNA), extended its collaboration with the GMEI Utility, furthering a key relationship that has developed for many years on behalf of market participants, in particular, helping them to meet growing regulatory reporting mandates.

Commenting on this news, Scott Preiss, Managing Director, Global Head - CUSIP Global Services, said, “Our partnership with the GMEI Utility provides CUSIP requestors a seamless way to register for an LEI simultaneously and satisfy their annual maintenance requirements. By utilizing the GMEI Utility, CUSIP clients receive the fastest turnaround and the highest quality LEI fulfillment available.”

Ron Jordan, Managing Director of Data Services, DTCC, said, “The GLEIS and the LOUs are now an established means of providing freely available LEI codes and entity reference data for use by both regulators and market participants to foster greater transparency on counterparty exposures. In particular, the GLEIS is playing a critical role in globally organizing the registration and on-going renewal of LEI codes and ensuring the reference data associated with LEIs is of the highest quality. In a global economy, the true value of the LEI system will be realized when regulatory reporting covering all asset classes in every jurisdiction is required to use LEIs to identify trading parties. DTCC is committed to working with the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC), the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), the other LOUs and our GMEI Utility collaborators, including SWIFT, the Canadian Depository for Securities, CGS, LuxCSD and NordLEI, to drive further improvements in this crucial area.”

The GMEI Utility continued to implement enhancements that offer operational efficiency to the industry, such as the addition of export to Excel functionality, allowing users to filter and export record sets in a pre-formatted file. The establishment of a multi-year subscription model allows clients to reduce the annual overhead of renewing their records while ensuring they remain compliant with global regulatory requirements. Each of these enhancements responds to user needs to make the overall renewal process as quick and easy as possible. In addition, the GMEI Utility now integrates with other DTCC global services - such as the award-winning Avox Data Services plus the Clarient Entity Hub as well as Omgeo ALERT and DTCC’s Global Trade Repository (GTR).