Esma’s LEI Xmas Extension: Last-Minute Gift or Lump of Coal?

More than 1 million Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) were registered in the lead-up to the January 3, 2018 deadline for compliance with Europe’s revised Markets in Financial Information Directive (Mifid II). Yet that number still falls far short of the estimated number of LEIs necessary as mandated under Mifid II’s rules, which require nearly every company, charity, trust, or fund to obtain an identifier. 

As a result, five days before Christmas and two weeks before Mifid II’s deadline, pan