ISO 17442-1:2020

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 17442-1
First edition
2020-08
Financial services — Legal entity
identifier (LEI) —
Part 1:
Assignment
Services financiers — Schéma d'identifiant d'entité légale (IEL) —
Partie 1: Attribution
Reference number
ISO 17442-1:2020(E)
©
ISO 2020

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ISO 17442-1:2020(E)

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ISO 17442-1:2020(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 2
4 Structure of the LEI . 3
5 Check digit pair . 3
5.1 General . 3
5.2 Calculating the check digit pair . 4
6 LEI data record . 4
Annex A (informative) LEI check digit pair calculation and verification examples .6
Bibliography . 8
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ISO 17442-1:2020(E)

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www .iso .org/
iso/ foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 68, Financial services, Subcommittee SC
8, Reference data for financial services.
This first edition of ISO 17442-1, along with ISO 17442-2, cancels and replaces ISO 17442:2019, which
has been technically revised.
The main changes to ISO 17442:2019 are as follows:
— clarification that international branches of entities that meet certain conditions may be assigned LEIs;
— addition of new attributes to the LEI data record concerning identification of the direct and ultimate
parent of a legal entity;
— addition of new attributes of the LEI data record concerning the status of the entity and the data
record, and events that cause the data record to change;
— addition of new attributes of the LEI data record in relation to investment funds;
— clarification regarding certain existing attributes of the LEI data record.
A list of all parts in the ISO 17442 series can be found on the ISO website.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
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ISO 17442-1:2020(E)

Introduction
Legal entity identification is an integrated and necessary component of financial transactions. Entering
into business relationships requires “know your customer” processes to be initiated and maintained for
the duration of these relationships and any longer-term data retention requirements to be addressed.
Parties involved in financial transactions need to be identified in the records of these transactions to
facilitate monitoring of the exposure to individual counterparties and the resulting concentration risk.
Moreover, financial institutions are subject to a variety of obligations to report transactions and
exposures to financial regulators in order for them to have effective oversight of financial markets and
risks in the financial system, at both national and global levels.
All of this needs to be achieved while the support for straight through processing (STP) is maintained.
This document fulfils the need for legal entity identification of the global financial services industry
and the regulatory community. Its key provisions are that it:
— enables unique identification globally of entities requiring a legal entity identifier (LEI);
— defines an LEI code that contains no embedded intelligence;
— defines an LEI code that is interoperable with other standards and existing reference data and can
be applied globally to support the financial services industry;
— leverages the expertise of ISO/TC 68 in defining and maintaining identifier standards;
— defines an LEI scheme that is reliable and an LEI code that is persistent;
— defines an LEI scheme that is extensible and free from limitation on use and redistribution.
It is important that the reference information described in Clause 6 of this document is kept up to date
at all times.
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 17442-1:2020(E)
Financial services — Legal entity identifier (LEI) —
Part 1:
Assignment
1 Scope
This document specifies the minimum elements of an unambiguous legal entity identifier (LEI) scheme
to identify the legal entities relevant to any financial transaction.
It is applicable to “legal entities”, which include, but are not limited to, unique parties that are legally
or financially responsible for the performance of financial transactions or have the legal right in their
jurisdiction to enter independently into legal contracts, regardless of whether they are incorporated
or constituted in some other way (e.g. trust, partnership, contractual). It includes governmental
1)
organizations, supranationals and individuals when acting in a business capacity , but excludes natural
persons. It also includes international branches as defined in 3.5.
The LEI is designed for automated processing. It can also be conveniently used in other media
interchange when appropriate (e.g. paper document exchange).
NOTE Examples of eligible legal entities include, without limitation:
— all financial intermediaries;
— banks and finance companies;
— international branches;
— all entities that issue equity, debt or other securities for other capital structures;
— all entities listed on an exchange;
— all entities that trade financial instruments or are otherwise parties to financial transactions, including
business entities, pension funds and investment vehicles such as collective investment funds (at umbrella
and sub-fund level) and other special purpose vehicles that have a legal form;
— all entities under the purview of a financial regulator and their affiliates, subsidiaries and holding companies;
— sole traders (as an example of individuals acting in a business capacity);
— counterparties to financial transactions.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 3166 (all parts), Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions
ISO/IEC 7064, Information technology — Security techniques — Check character systems
ISO 8601 (all parts), Data elements and interchange formats — Information interchange — Representation
of dates and times
1) As stated by the LEI Regulatory Oversight Committee on 30 September 2015.
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ISO 17442-1:2020(E)

ISO 20275, Financial services — Entity legal forms (ELF)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the followin
...