The quick answer on which identifier you need If your company operates internationally, applies for credit, files taxes, or trades financial instruments, you’ve probably run into an alphabet soup of identifiers: LEI, ISIN, DUNS, EIN, UEI, GIIN, VAT number, company registration number. They show up on the same forms. They sound alike. More than one accountant has mistakenly sent a bank a DUNS number instead of an LEI code. In reality these are eight completely different systems that happen to all be numbers or alphanumeric codes next to your company’s name. Most businesses don’t pick one identifier over another. They accumulate several over time, because each one unlocks a different system: Identifier Issued by Format Main purpose Who typically needs it Company registration number National business registry Varies by country Proves legal existence and incorporation Every registered company VAT number

What T+1 means and what changes in the EU A settlement cycle tells you how many working days pass between the trade date and final settlement. Final settlement is the point where cash and securities actually change hands. T+1 means settlement one working day after the trade. The EU runs on T+2 today, so a trade placed now settles two working days later. ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU’s financial markets regulator) has recommended 11 October 2027 as the switch-over date. The legal route runs through an amendment to CSDR (Central Securities Depositories Regulation, the EU rulebook for securities settlement) Article 5(2). That article currently requires T+2, and as a result the EU co-legislators have already agreed the change. A shorter window cuts counterparty risk. After all, less time between trade and settlement means less time for something

How an LEI rule in one country reaches your business An LEI (Legal Entity Identifier, a 20-character global code that identifies a legal entity) is no longer just a matter for your own regulator. Your country might not require one. Your counterparty’s country might. And once it does, the requirement becomes yours in practice. Take a simple case. Your company sits outside the European Union, and you want to trade securities through an EU-regulated investment firm. The legal duty sits with the firm, not with you. Under MiFID II and MiFIR (the EU rules on markets in financial instruments), the firm has to report every reportable trade to its regulator, and that report has to carry your LEI. No LEI, no report. No report, no trade. So the requirement reaches you through the firm you deal with. That is why

What Is GODIN? GODIN (Global Open Data Integration Network, a global collaboration network for connecting open data) is an initiative led by GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, the foundation that manages the global LEI system). GLEIF and Open Ownership, a non-profit organisation focused on beneficial ownership transparency, launched GODIN in March 2025. The goal of the network is simple. The world holds many valuable open data sets. However, they remain fragmented across platforms, countries, and standards. GODIN connects these data sets with one common key. That key is the LEI code (Legal Entity Identifier, the global identification code for legal entities). Every company has only one unique LEI code. Consequently, when that code appears in every data set, information can be linked reliably. Business registers, supply chain maps, sustainability data, beneficial ownership records, and other sources start talking to

What is Project Aperta? Project Aperta is an initiative led by BIS (Bank for International Settlements, the cooperation body for central banks). In short, it tested cross-border open finance interoperability. The project was run by the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre. During the project, the prototype connected the open finance networks of five markets: the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Hong Kong, and India. As a result, BIS calls it a network of networks. The project brought together several central banks. These included the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Central Bank of Brazil, and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. In addition, the UK financial regulator FCA took part. GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, the body that oversees the global LEI system) also joined, alongside the International Chamber of Commerce Digital Standards Initiative and

AI Agents Are Already Acting on Behalf of Companies AI agents are no longer an experiment. They search for information, compare offers, fill in forms, and interact with other systems on behalf of companies. According to WEF (World Economic Forum, an international organisation for economic cooperation) data, 82% of executives plan to adopt AI agents within the next one to three years. As a result, a question arises that the internet has never had to answer at this scale. When an AI agent performs an action, the agent itself is not liable for anything. The legal entity behind it is. But how can anyone verify which legal entity that is? Today’s internet has no common standard for it. What Is the Agent Name Service? In June 2026, the Linux Foundation announced its intent to launch ANS (Agent Name Service, an

Why India Decided to Act India’s financial market is enormous. Every day, hundreds of millions of transactions move between banks, businesses, and financial institutions. For years, however, a familiar problem persisted: who actually stands behind a transaction? The 2008 financial crisis made that question impossible to ignore. Regulators discovered they could not quickly identify which market participants were exposed to failing counterparties. Data was fragmented, identifiers were inconsistent, and cross-border transparency was nearly nonexistent. As a result, the G20 established the LEI (Legal Entity Identifier, a global identifier for legal entities in financial transactions) system, overseen by GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, the body that manages the global LEI system). GLEIF tracks LEI adoption across regulations worldwide and India stands out as one of the most thorough examples of how a country can roll out LEI at scale. A

Why U.S. Financial Data Has Long Been Fragmented U.S. federal financial regulation has historically operated in silos. Different regulators used different systems, different formats, and different identifiers for the same entities. During the 2008 financial crisis, regulators discovered they could not quickly identify which market participants were exposed to failing counterparties, because the data simply did not connect. Congress wrote the FDTA (Financial Data Transparency Act, the U.S. law requiring uniform machine-readable standards for financial reporting) to fix this. In December 2022, Congress passed the act, directing a group of nine federal financial agencies to establish common data standards. What Was Decided in June 2026 In June 2026, the agencies published the final joint rule, which takes effect on October 1, 2026. The SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), OCC (Office of the Comptroller of

The LEI code plays a central role in Europe’s new European Business Wallet — a harmonised digital identity tool for EU businesses. The European Union is reshaping how businesses prove who they are, sign documents, and interact with authorities across borders. The LEI (Legal Entity Identifier, a unique global identifier for legal entities) is key to making that work in practice. What is the European Business Wallet? The European Commission published its proposal for the EBW regulation in November 2025 (COM(2025) 838). The goal is straightforward: reduce administrative burden for businesses and make cross-border operations inside the EU faster and simpler. With an EBW, a company can carry out the following actions digitally, with full legal effect across all 27 EU Member States: Verify its own identity and check counterparty data in real time Create, store, and share verified documents