A global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is one of the most critical methods available to ensure effective regulatory oversight of the financial markets. In testimony yesterday before the House Committee on Financial Services, U.S. Treasury Secretary and Chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) Jack Lew noted:

“There has also been progress in improving the standardization of certain financial data, including the legal entity identifier (LEI), which will help to identify parties to financial transactions. The widespread adoption of LEI both domestically and globally, together with the work to enhance the consistency and availability of swaps data reported by swaps data repositories, would improve the ability of regulators to monitor emerging risks in the financial system. The Council supports these efforts and recommends that member agencies and the OFR continue to work together to promote high-quality data standards and fill data gaps where they exist.”

SIFMA and our global affiliate, the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA), are proud to lead the financial industry in these efforts. We believe global coordination is critical to developing a single LEI standard, making this a powerful, international tool for firms and regulators to manage and monitor systemic risk. We appreciate FSOC’s recognition of the progress made to date and the Office of Financial Research’s (OFR) outreach to foreign regulators to globally coordinate implementation.

It’s an oft-overlooked piece of operational plumbing when the same discussion covers major issues such as ending too-big-to-fail (where “enormous progress” has been made) and housing finance reform. However, this back-end system is critical to managing risk and helping safeguard our financial markets from potential crises.

Learn more:

• House Committee on Financial Services Hearing: The Annual Report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (June 24, 2014)
  – Video Replay
  – Testimony
• Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: The Financial Stability Oversight Council Annual Report to Congress (June 25, 2014)
  – Live Webcast
  – Testimony
• Financial Stability Oversight Council – 2014 Annual Report (May 7, 2014)
• SIFMA LEI Resource Center

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