The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) announce 4th April 2019 as the ‘go-live’ date for the new initiative to start linking International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) for the global financial industry. The initiative has been created to help improve transparency of exposure by linking the legal issuing entity (Issuer) to their issuance of securities, and to also address some of the regulatory requirements under the Prospective Directive, the CSDR and SFTR.

Over the past nine months, ANNA and GLEIF have worked together on technical developments on how the new global initiative will map ISINs to their corresponding LEIs. From April, a consolidated view of ISIN-LEI links provided by National Numbering Agencies who have opted into the initiative will be provided to the GLEIF by the ANNA Service Bureau (ASB). This published ISIN-to-LEI mapping will be made freely available to all without restriction on the GLEIF website. Eleven NNAs have already opted in from the start, with many expected to follow in the coming months.

This initiative underlines ANNA’s and GLEIF’s commitment and mission to promote the use of standards, including the two ISO standards used in this initiative: ISIN (ISO 6166) and LEI (ISO 17442). By linking the two ISO standards together, firms will be able to aggregate data to gain a clear view of their securities exposure for a given issuer and its related entities.

As the registration authority for the ISIN, ANNA has been responsible for evolving and promoting the ISIN standard through its work and collaboration with members, regulators and the industry at large. As a result, ISINs are issued today in more than 200 jurisdictions worldwide, enabling efficient global cross-border trading and improved transparency.

Established in 2014 by the Financial Stability Board, the GLEIF is tasked to support the implementation and use of LEIs, to help drive forward transparency within the global financial markets. Public authorities in many jurisdictions rely on the LEI to evaluate risk, take corrective steps as well as improve the accuracy of financial data in order to minimise the risk of market abuse.

Uwe Meyer, Executive Director & Secretariat, ANNA, said, “We are delighted that GLEIF and ANNA have joined forces to provide such a high quality and useful link between two very important ISO standards. We are constantly looking for ways to bring about further harmony in the markets by promoting standardisation, and are pleased that our work with GLEIF is furthering this end. Our work with the National Numbering Agencies has made this initiative ready for launch in just a few months, which is an incredible achievement and testament to the collaboration within the industry.”

Stephan Wolf, CEO, GLEIF, said, “GLEIF has been working with ANNA on this initiative to improve transparency and efficiency by aggregating ISINs with LEIs. We are excited to see the uptake in April this year and look forward to providing a service of links so that market participants can better see their exposure by having data on the issuer and issuance of securities in one place.”

Source: ANNA