Recording: ADB-GLEIF Joint Asia Webinar Series on LEI: Part 1 - Introduction to LEI

The first webinar in the series discussed existing implementations of the LEI and the benefits to governments and private sector firms around the world.

Objective of the Webinar Series:
COVID-19 made us realize the importance of digitalization. But we still lack a vital enabler, particularly for cross-border transactions, commonly used for identifying an entity. Without a globally accepted standard ID, information and data flows may be stopped or slowed at the border. Further proliferation of a globally accepted ID and a good understanding of the needs is essential for a more robust, faster, and sustainable recovery from the pandemic.

In the wake of the global financial crisis in 2007, regulators worldwide acknowledged their inability to identify parties to transactions across markets, products, and regions. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), together with the finance ministers and central bank governors represented in the Group of 20 (G20), advocated developing a universal Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) applicable to any legal entity that engages in financial transactions. Implementation of the LEI will increase the authorities’ ability to evaluate systemic and emerging risk, identify trends and take corrective steps.

The merit of the publicly available LEI data pool goes beyond the hands of financial regulators. The LEI enables the precise and unique identification of legal entities by connecting to key reference information. Any interested party can access and search the complete LEI data pool free of charge and without the need to register. Broad adoption of LEIs could save the global banking sector USD 2-4 billion annually in client onboarding costs alone. This represents a saving of between 5-10 percent of the industry’s USD 40 billion annual overall costs on the practice. If banks broaden the utilization of LEIs across business lines, resulting efficiencies will generate significant cost and time savings.

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) was established in 2014 as a supra-national not-for-profit organization tasked to ensure the operational integrity of the Global LEI System by the initiative of the leaders of the G20 and the Financial Stability Board. In collaboration with GLEIF, the Asian webinar series aimed to explain LEI, highlighted the global trend of LEI adaptation, and shared experience and policy directions of Asian regulators as well as business practices utilizing LEI in Asia.

Target Audience:
The members and observers of ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum (ABMF) and Cross-Border Settlement Infrastructure Forum (CSIF) under the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI), consisting of the staff from the central banks, securities regulators, ministries of finance, stock exchanges, CSDs, financial market associations, and private sector financial experts in ASEAN+3. We welcomed participation from the academia and tax authorities as well as any parties interested in the LEI.

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