An LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) is a 20-character ISO 17442 code that identifies one legal entity in financial transactions anywhere in the world. It is assigned once, never reused for anyone else, and linked to a public record with the company's legal name, registration number, addresses and parent companies. Banks, brokers and regulators use the LEI number to know exactly who stands on the other side of a trade, a report or a contract.
Most companies first hear about it when a bank or broker refuses an order. Since 3 January 2018 an investment firm in the EU may not carry out a reportable trade for a company client until it has that client's LEI, a rule known as "no LEI, no trade". This guide explains what the code means, who needs one, how it differs from other company identifiers, and how registration, renewal and transfer work. If you already know you need one, you can register or renew an LEI code with us.
What the 20 characters of an LEI mean
An LEI contains only capital letters and digits, and it carries no hidden meaning about the company: you cannot read the country, the industry or the size out of it. The structure is fixed by ISO 17442:
| Characters | What they are | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | Prefix of the LEI issuer that first assigned the code, which keeps codes from different issuers unique | 5067 |
| 5 to 18 | Entity-specific part, assigned by the issuer | 00GE1G29325QX3 |
| 19 to 20 | Two check digits | 63 |
The example is the LEI of GLEIF itself, 506700GE1G29325QX363. The check digits are calculated with the same modulo 97 method used in IBAN account numbers (ISO 7064), so software can catch a mistyped LEI before a report or a payment goes out. A correct checksum only proves that the code is well formed. Whether it belongs to the company you think it does, and whether its registration is current, you check in the GLEIF database.
Level 1 and Level 2 data: who is who and who owns whom
The code is only the key. Behind it sits a public record in two parts.
Level 1 answers "who is who": the legal name exactly as registered, the business register and the company number in it (for a Latvian company, the 11-digit number in the Register of Enterprises), the legal form, the legal and headquarters addresses, the date the LEI was first issued, its registration status and the next renewal date. The issuer checks these fields against an authoritative source, usually the national business register, before it publishes them and again at every renewal.
Level 2 answers "who owns whom". Since May 2017 every entity that obtains or renews an LEI reports its direct accounting consolidating parent and its ultimate accounting consolidating parent, meaning the companies that include it in their consolidated financial statements. When there is no such parent, or the parent has no LEI, the entity records a reason instead, for example that it is owned by natural persons or that the parent does not prepare consolidated accounts.
Level 2 follows accounting consolidation, not beneficial ownership. It does not name the private individuals behind a company and it does not replace the register of beneficial owners. What it gives a bank is a verified map of corporate groups: one search shows that a Riga subsidiary belongs to a Nordic group, and which company sits at the top.
Who needs an LEI
A company that only sells to customers and pays its suppliers can live without one. The LEI becomes necessary as soon as the company touches financial markets or regulated finance:
- Investing company money. Buying bonds, shares, ETFs or fund units through a company account at a bank or an online broker. This is the most common reason a small company asks for an LEI: it has spare cash and wants to put it to work.
- Hedging and derivatives. Currency forwards, interest rate swaps and options are derivatives. Under EMIR every derivative trade is reported to a trade repository with the LEI of each legal entity involved. When a bank trades with a small non-financial company, the bank has reported for both sides since June 2020, but it still needs your LEI, and ESMA puts the duty to keep that LEI correct and renewed on your company.
- Issuing bonds or shares. Trading venues report reference data for every instrument they admit, including the LEI of the issuer. A company that lists bonds or shares on a regulated market or on a multilateral trading facility such as First North is identified this way, and companies on a regulated market also tag their annual reports with their LEI.
- Financial firms and funds. Banks, investment firms, fund managers, insurers, payment and e-money institutions report to their supervisors under their own LEI.
- Suppliers to banks, insurers and fintechs. DORA requires financial entities to keep a register of every contract for ICT services. A supplier that is a company is identified in it by its LEI or, if it is registered in an EU member state, by its EUID from the business register; a supplier from outside the EU can only be identified by an LEI. Many financial clients simply ask their IT, software and hosting suppliers for an LEI, because it can be checked automatically against GLEIF.
- Cross-border partners. Some foreign banks, trade finance desks and procurement teams ask for an LEI during onboarding to confirm exactly which entity they are dealing with.
The requirement is about legal entities. A private person who invests their own money does not need an LEI: brokers identify individuals by their personal details.
LEI vs DUNS, BIC and the company registration number
A company already has several numbers, so the question "why another one?" is fair. Each identifier was built for a different job:
| Identifier | Who issues it | What it identifies | Public and free to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEI | LEI issuers accredited by GLEIF, ISO 17442 | Any legal entity taking part in financial transactions, with its parent companies | Yes, the full record, as open data |
| DUNS number | Dun & Bradstreet, a private company | A business in D&B's commercial database, 9 digits | Lookup is possible, the data is proprietary |
| BIC (SWIFT code) | SWIFT, ISO 9362 | A participant in payment and financial messaging, mostly banks | Directory lookup, used to route messages |
| Registration number | The national business register, in Latvia the Register of Enterprises | A company within one country's legal system | Yes, in the national register, format differs by country |
What matters to regulators is that the LEI is global, follows one standard, is re-validated every year and carries ownership data, while a national number only makes sense together with the country and the register that issued it. The identifiers are linked rather than competing: the LEI record of a company normally contains its national registration number, and GLEIF publishes free mapping files that connect LEIs to BICs and to the ISINs of securities.
The regulations that require an LEI
The LEI was created after the 2008 financial crisis, when regulators found they could not quickly tell which firms were exposed to a failing counterparty. It is now written into a long list of rules. For a company in the EU these are the ones you are most likely to meet:
- MiFID II and MiFIR (investment services). Investment firms report every transaction with the LEI of each client that is a legal entity, and "no LEI, no trade" has applied since 3 January 2018.
- EMIR (derivatives). Both counterparties of a derivative trade are identified by LEI in the report, and the entity responsible for reporting has to keep its own LEI renewed.
- SFTR (repos, securities lending and other securities financing). Reporting identifies counterparties by LEI and has been phased in since July 2020.
- Issuer disclosure. Annual reports of companies listed on a regulated market are filed in the ESEF format, with the LEI as the identifier of the issuer.
- Bank and insurance supervision. The EBA reporting framework uses the LEI to identify reporting banks, and EIOPA guidelines expect insurers and the companies in their groups to hold an LEI for Solvency II reporting.
- DORA (digital operational resilience, applied since 17 January 2025). In the register of information, financial entities are identified only by LEI and their ICT suppliers by LEI or EUID. Our guide What is DORA explains the register and the supplier contract clauses. For financial entities DORA takes the place of the general cybersecurity rules described in our NIS2 guide.
Outside the EU, swap reporting in the United States under rules adopted after the Dodd-Frank Act also relies on the LEI, as do reporting regimes in the UK and many other jurisdictions.
How to get an LEI
LEIs are issued by organisations accredited by GLEIF, directly or through registration agents that work with them. A company is not limited to an issuer in its own country: it can use any issuer accredited for its jurisdiction. LEI registration looks much the same everywhere:
- Search first. Check GLEIF to make sure your company has no LEI already. Some companies got one years ago for a single bond purchase and forgot about it. A legal entity may have only one LEI, so the right move then is to renew or transfer the existing code.
- Collect the data. You need the registration number in the national business register (the legal name and the addresses are taken from there), the name of a board member with the right to represent the company, or a signed authorisation letter if an accountant, a lawyer or another employee applies on the company's behalf, and the parent company answers for Level 2 together with the parents' LEIs if they have them.
- Check and confirm. Before publication you see the record that will go into the global database. Check the spelling of the legal name, the addresses and the parent data carefully, because this is exactly what banks will see.
- Validation and publication. The issuer checks the data against the business register and publishes the LEI. For a Latvian company this takes from a few hours to about three working days.
We register LEI codes, renew existing ones and take over codes issued elsewhere, with the data checked against the Register of Enterprises and an invoice in euro from a Latvian company. See the terms and order your LEI code.
LEI renewal, lapsed status and transfer
The LEI number itself is permanent, but its registration has to be renewed every year. Each record shows a next renewal date, and by then the issuer re-validates the data against the business register. If that does not happen in time, the registration status changes from ISSUED to LAPSED.
A lapsed LEI keeps the same number and still points to your company, but it tells everyone that nobody has confirmed the data for more than a year. That has practical effects. EMIR expects reporting entities to keep their own LEI renewed, ESMA expects small companies whose bank reports for them to keep their LEI valid and renewed, and DORA's register of information asks for active LEIs. Banks and brokers check the status, and some block orders until the code is renewed. In Latvia this is common: according to GLEIF, over 4,200 Latvian companies have received an LEI, and about 1,270 of those registrations were lapsed in September 2026.
The fix is renewal, not a new code. A lapsed LEI can be renewed at any time and returns to ISSUED with the same number. Many issuers also sell terms of several years: the data is still re-validated every year, but the renewals are paid in advance and nobody has to remember the date.
An LEI can also be moved to another issuer. During the transfer the record briefly shows a pending status, and once it completes the new issuer manages the renewals. The code does not change, so nothing changes for your bank or broker. Transfers are often combined with a renewal, which is also the usual way to bring back a lapsed LEI registered with another issuer. When a company is liquidated or merged into another, its LEI is retired or marked as merged, and the number is never given to anyone else.
How much does an LEI cost?
There is no single official price. Each issuer and registration agent sets its own, and the issuers fund GLEIF through a fee for every LEI they manage. Prices are usually quoted per year, with lower yearly prices for multi-year terms. When you compare offers, look at the total for the term you need, whether the yearly renewals within the term are included, whether transfer from another issuer costs extra and whether VAT is included. Our current prices for one to five years and for renewal or transfer of an existing code are on the LEI code page.
How to look up an LEI
Anyone can check an LEI free of charge and without an account in the GLEIF LEI search. You can search by the code, by the company name or by the registration number. The result shows the Level 1 data, the registration status, the next renewal date, the issuer that manages the record and the parent relationships. GLEIF publishes the whole database as open data under a CC0 licence and through a free API, which is why banks, brokers and accounting software can validate LEIs automatically.
The standard keeps developing. In 2024 ISO 17442 gained a third part for the verifiable LEI (vLEI), a digital credential that lets software confirm not only which company it deals with but also which person acts for it and in what role. The vLEI is optional and builds on an ordinary LEI, so the LEI comes first.
Short answers
What is an LEI number used for? To identify a legal entity in financial transactions and regulatory reports: buying and selling securities, derivatives, securities financing, issuing securities and supervisory reporting.
Is the LEI the same as the company registration number? No. The registration number identifies the company in one national register. The LEI is a global code that contains that number in its record and adds the parent companies.
How long is an LEI valid? The number is permanent. The registration must be renewed every year, otherwise its status becomes lapsed.
Does my company need an LEI to open a bank account? Usually not. It is needed for investing, derivatives, issuing securities and when a financial client asks for it.
Is the LEI record public? Yes. The code, the legal name, the registration number, the addresses and the parent companies are public in GLEIF. The name of the person who applied is not published.
How long does LEI registration take in Latvia? From a few hours to about three working days after the data is confirmed and paid for. You can order it on our LEI code page.