An LEI has three parts
Elucidate GmbH’s LEI is 391200AZ2XGBV3BEY487. It breaks down as follows.
- 3912Issuer
Characters 1–4 - 00AZ2XGBV3BEY4Entity
Characters 5–18 - 87Check digits
ISO 7064, MOD 97-10
The first four characters identify the organisation that issued the LEI. The fourteen that follow are assigned by that issuer. Unlike a BIC, they carry no meaning: an LEI does not encode the entity’s name, country or type.
The check digits let software reject most mistyped LEIs. A valid LEI may still belong to an entity other than the one in front of you, so compare the record.
The record shows who the entity is
GLEIF calls this the reference data, or level 1. The main fields are these.
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Legal name | The name in the entity’s business register, with any other names it uses. |
| Addresses | The legal (registered) address and the headquarters address. |
| Registration authority | The business register and the entity’s number in it. For Elucidate GmbH: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 196707 B. |
| Legal form | The form of the entity, as an ISO 20275 entity legal form (ELF) code. |
| Entity status | Whether the entity is active or inactive, as reported. |
| Registration status | Whether the LEI record is current (below), with the next renewal date. |
Registration status shows whether the record is current
An LEI record must be renewed every year. The issuer then checks it again against the business register.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ISSUED | The record was validated and is renewed on time. |
| LAPSED | The record was not renewed by its renewal date. The LEI stays the entity’s identifier, but its data may be out of date. |
| MERGED | The entity merged into another entity, which has its own LEI. |
| RETIRED | The record is no longer maintained, for example because the entity was dissolved. |
| ANNULLED, DUPLICATE | The LEI was issued in error, or duplicates another LEI of the same entity. |
A lapsed record does not by itself mean that the entity has stopped trading.
Relationship records show reported parents
Since 2017, entities with an LEI report their direct and ultimate parents. GLEIF calls this level 2, or “who owns whom”. A parent here is the entity that consolidates the child in its accounts, under accounting standards such as IFRS. These records show accounting consolidation, not ownership. They do not name natural persons.
An entity that does not report a parent gives a reason instead, for example that it is owned by natural persons or that its parent does not consolidate it. International branches can hold their own LEI, linked to the LEI of their head office.
The directory groups institutions by these records: see the corporate groups.
Swift and GLEIF map BICs to LEIs
Swift and GLEIF publish a free file that maps BICs to the LEIs of the entities that hold them, the BIC-to-LEI relationship file. One LEI can be mapped to several BICs, such as a bank’s head-office BIC and the BICs of its foreign branches. A branch code can be mapped to an LEI other than its head office’s, for example that of an international branch.
Not every BIC is mapped. Write “no LEI mapped”, not “has no LEI”: the entity may hold an LEI that the file does not link to its BIC.
GLEIF publishes similar mapping files for other identifiers, including the Market Identifier Code (MIC, ISO 10383) of trading venues.
Where an LEI is required
Regulators require an LEI in many reports, for example derivatives reporting under EMIR and transaction reporting under MiFIR in the EU and swap reporting to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
In ISO 20022 payment messages, the LEI of a party or a financial institution goes in its <LEI> element.
What an LEI does not tell you
- Who the beneficial owners are. Parent records name legal entities that consolidate the entity, not the people who own or control it.
- Whether the entity is licensed. An LEI is not an authorisation. See how to check a payment firm’s licence.
- Whether a counterparty is safe to deal with. An LEI identifies; it does not assess.
Look up an LEI. The directory shows the institutions mapped to an LEI, their BICs, their licences and their corporate group.
Search LEIsSources
- ISO 17442, Financial services — Legal entity identifier (LEI). International Organization for Standardization.
- Introducing the Legal Entity Identifier. Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF).
- BIC-to-LEI relationship files. GLEIF and Swift.
- Elucidate GmbH’s LEI record, the example above. GLEIF.
Reviewed 31 October 2026. Standards and registers change: the publisher’s own text is always the authority.