Do You Need an LEI Number?
Find Out Here

Don’t wait for a rejected trade to find out you’re non-compliant. Use our 60-second diagnostic to see if you are legally required to hold an LEI.

The "Must-Have" Trigger

If your UK business trades listed shares, bonds, ETFs, FX forwards, or interest-rate swaps, you are legally mandated to have an “Issued” LEI. Without it, your broker is legally required to freeze your account and reject all incoming trade orders.

Full Compliance Checklist

The "Must-Have" Trigger

If your UK business trades listed shares, bonds, ETFs, FX forwards, or interest-rate swaps, you are legally mandated to have an “Issued” LEI. Without it, your broker is legally required to freeze your account and reject all incoming trade orders.

Full Compliance Checklist

Documents and Data You’ll Need

Regulation Instruments covered Entity types Enforcement date
MiFID II Art 26 Shares, bonds, ETFs Investment firms & clients Jan 2018
EMIR & EMIR-REFIT OTC & ETD derivatives Financial & NFC entities Jun 2014 / Jun 2020
SFTR (EU & UK) Repos, securities lending Borrower & lender Jul 2020
CSDR Settlement fails reporting CSD participants Feb 2022
Dodd-Frank (US) Swaps US counterparties Apr 2013

Decision Flowchart

Who Needs an LEI Number

Sector Deep-Dive

Investment
funds

UCITS and AIFs must maintain Issued LEIs for all fund compartments. FCA Handbook COLL 6.9 cites LEIs in risk disclosures.

SMEs trading derivatives

Any LTD entering an FX forward exceeding seven days qualifies as a derivative counterparty under EMIR and therefore needs an LEI.

Local
authorities

Council treasurers using repo lines with UK banks must maintain active LEIs per SFTR-UK.

Benefits of Voluntary Adoption

  • Faster banking: HSBC and Barclays KYC portals auto-pull GLEIF data.
  • Vendor credibility: suppliers see a global ID, not just a UK CRN.
  • ESG & transparency: investors score higher on openness metrics.
  • Future-proofing: ready for vLEI digital-ID roll-outs
Benefits of voluntary adoption

Next steps: Register, Renew, Update

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Frequently Asked Questions

Around 191 000 as of Q2 2025 (GLEIF statistics).

Only if it trades reportable instruments, but UK fund LPs usually do.

Yes. Each legal entity requires its own LEI; group LEIs don’t cascade.

Encourage voluntary registration; banks increasingly ask suppliers for LEIs in trade-finance deals.

No. Regulations specify Issued status; lapsed codes are rejected.

Not yet under UK law, but MiCA in the EU may reference LEIs for crypto-asset service providers.

Amir Mechouk

CTO

Shane Healey

Chief Financial Officer

Darko Brzica

Chief Marketing Officer

Robert Andersson

Senior Advisor

Polina Bojilova Taliana

Managing Director