LEI registration for ICC members

The ICC and RapidLEI have partnered to promote the adoption of Legal Entity Identifiers within the ICC community, especially as the Electronic Trade Documents Bill comes into effect. The Electronic Trade Documents Bill removes all requirements for commercial trade documents to handled on paper, hence the importance of identifying parties in electronic trade.

The partnership involves educational programmes on the need for LEIs in paperless trade, and provides special promotional pricing to help adoption.

Learn more: What is an LEI?

An LEI, or Legal Entity Identifier, is a uniquely assigned 20-character alphanumeric number that identifies companies, organisations, funds and trusts. The LEI number is the global standard for uniquely identifying legal entities, providing transparency, and supporting regulatory compliance. The LEI code is used to access verified data about the entity, such as its legal name and address, and information on its ownership structure.

LEIs can only be issued by approved LEI Issuers. These LEI Issuer organisations are accredited by the Global LEI Foundation (GLEIF), the regulatory body overseeing the Global Legal Entity Identifier System.

The RapidLEI LEI registration platform uses automation to make the application process quick, straightforward and frictionless. Many LEIs are issued in just minutes, but if company identity data needs additional checks, such as validating parental and fund relationships, it may take a little longer. If this is the case, we still issue your LEI in just hours, and almost always on the same day as application.

Applying for a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) with RapidLEI is simple. Start by entering your organisation’s name and our system will automatically search for your entity details to prefill the form. During the quick process, you’ll be asked to confirm key information such as your legal name, registered address, and company registration number.

RapidLEI verifies this information against official authoritative sources to accelerate approval and ensure data accuracy. Once verified, your LEI is issued, usually within just a few minutes.

Your LEI remains valid for one year and can be renewed easily online. Multi-year plans are also available, keeping your LEI active through automated renewal without needing to repeat the registration process each year.

Learn more: LEI registration process

After an LEI is issued, it remains valid for one year and must be renewed annually to retain its Active status in the Global LEI System. To make this easier for customers, we offer multiyear options that keep the LEI active for up to five years without requiring yearly renewals.

If an LEI is not renewed, it becomes lapsed. Lapsed LEIs may cause problems in financial transactions and regulatory reporting, including the risk of transactions being rejected or penalties for non-compliance.

RapidLEI recommends choosing multiyear to avoid the risk of lapsed LEIs. But should an LEI fall into lapse state, it can be renewed at any time to restore its active status.

Only the accredited LEI Issuer managing the Identifier can renew it. If you want to renew an existing LEI with RapidLEI, you must first transfer it to our management. This is a simple process and our web forms guide you through the process (click for LEI transfer process).

You can use the free LEI Search tool to find out the current status. We connect to the global LEI index to check, and depending on status our system will help you renew, register, or reactivate a lapsed LEI quickly.

RapidLEI is one of about 35 accredited LEI Issuers, also known as LOUs (Local Operating Units). RapidLEI was accredited by the GLEIF to issue LEIs in June 2018 and sits alongside organisations like Bloomberg, the London Stock Exchange Group, Euronext and others. RapidLEI provides the registration, renewal and management of Legal Entity Identifiers for over 400k legal entities. RapidLEI is the largest LEI Issuer globally.

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) was established in 2014 by the Financial Stability Board and the G20. The GLEIF is responsible for maintaining the operational integrity of the Global LEI System and works with accredited LEI Issuers to ensure that the LEI remains a public good accessible to all stakeholders.

The GLEIF also supports the broader adoption of the LEI across the global economy. Its work includes overseeing data quality, setting issuance standards, and promoting use cases such as cross-border trade and payee identification. This helps keep the LEI as the world’s most trusted and accessible way to identify organisations.