The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is unique global identifier of legal entities participating in financial transactions. These can be individuals, companies or government entities that participate in financial transaction. The identifier is used in reporting to financial regulators and all financial companies and funds are required to have an LEI. The identifier is formatted as a 20-character, alpha-numeric code based on the ISO 17442 standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Prefix used to ensure uniqueness among codes from LOUs

Entity-specific part of the code generated and assigned by LOUs according to transparent, sound and robust allocation policies

Two check digits as described in the ISO 17442 standard