A Legal Entity Identifier, or LEI, is a 20-character alphanumeric code that identifies a legal entity such as a company or a fund. It is defined in ISO 17442, issued by accredited local operating units and published in an open global index that records who an entity is and who owns it.
What it identifies
An LEI identifies the legal entity, not any security it issues, so one issuer has one LEI and many ISINs. Each record has two levels. Level 1 answers who is who, with the legal name and registered address. Level 2 answers who owns whom: the direct and ultimate accounting parents, shown where the entity reports them and the parent has an LEI.
GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, publishes the data free of charge. Each LEI is renewed every year, and a lapsed LEI is one whose renewal is overdue.
Structure
| Characters | Content |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | Prefix of the issuing operating unit |
| 5 to 18 | Entity-specific part |
| 19 to 20 | Two check digits |
The check digits follow ISO 7064 MOD 97-10, so anyone can test a code without a lookup. The test is set out in the questions below.
Common mistakes
- Using an LEI as a security key. It names the issuer, so many securities share it.
- Assuming a group has one LEI. Each legal entity has its own, and a subsidiary's LEI is not its parent's.
- Joining ISINs to LEIs by hand. GLEIF publishes daily ISIN-to-LEI relationship files that do it.
In Fokals data
Every listed company carries its LEI, validated by its check digit, next to its ticker, MIC, ISIN and share-class FIGI. The LEI on a listing is the issuer's, so one LEI joins every security a company issues. A brand or subsidiary carries the identifiers of its listed parent, so its LEI is the parent's. The data dictionary lists the identifier fields, and ISIN, LEI and FIGI compared sets out what each identifies.
Related terms
- ISIN: the code of a security the entity issues.
- FIGI: the open code for an instrument or listing.
- Corporate hierarchy: how subsidiaries sit under a parent.
- Entity resolution: matching records that describe one entity.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an LEI and an ISIN?
An LEI identifies a legal entity, such as the company that issues shares. An ISIN identifies a security that the entity issues, such as one class of its shares. One LEI therefore maps to many ISINs. Link them with GLEIF's ISIN-to-LEI relationship files, or with a join in your security master.
Is an LEI free to look up?
Yes. GLEIF publishes the Global LEI Index as open data, available free of charge, and anyone can search or download it. Obtaining an LEI for an entity is a separate step, done through an accredited issuing organisation. Look at the registration status in the record: a lapsed LEI is one whose annual renewal is overdue.
How do you check that an LEI is valid?
Check the format first: twenty letters or digits. Then replace each letter by its two-digit number, with A as 10 and Z as 35, read the result as one number and divide by 97. A valid LEI leaves a remainder of 1. That shows the code is well formed, not that it exists, so look it up in the GLEIF index to see whether it is issued and current.