GMEI's LEIs Reach Half of Global Total

The Global Markets Entity Identifier (GMEI) utility, a joint venture by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and Swift, has issued more than 165,000 legal entity identifiers (LEIs) to entities in more than 140 jurisdictions, according to officials.

The number of identifiers represents about half of the 338,000 LEIs that have been issued to date worldwide.

"Achievement of these milestones illustrates the seriousness with which we take our role within the Global Legal Entity Identifier System (GLEIS)," says Bill Hodash, managing director of business development at DTCC. "The industry, DTCC and Swift, other Local Operating Units (LOUs) and the GLEIF [Global LEI Foundation] are all working together to fully implement the LEI, since it is so critical to increasing transparency and improving counterparty and global systemic risk analysis."

In September, the GMEI added CDS Clearing and Depository Services, the designated local operating unit for the Canadian market, as an LEI contributor. GMEI also has similar partnerships with Sweden's NordLEI and Luxembourg's LuxCSD.