Partner Spotlight – ManagedLEI

Q&A with Cristina Hudson, Managing Director of Trusted Identity and ManagedLEI

Back in March 2019, we announced a new strategic partnership between Ubisecure’s Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) service, RapidLEI, and Trusted Identity, forming official Registration Agent ManagedLEI. This new service is now in full swing, successfully issuing and managing Legal Entity Identifiers on behalf of their customers. Read more in the full ManagedLEI press release.

ManagedLEI has built the RapidLEI API into their own workflows, enabling their customers to purchase LEIs directly through their website whilst benefitting from the automated issuance process. This pioneering automation technology, in combination with a partner-first approach, has now seen RapidLEI become the largest new issuer of LEIs outside of the US.

This week, I (Francesca Hobson, FH) sat down with Cristina Hudson (CH), Managing Director of Trusted Identity and ManagedLEI, to discuss founding ManagedLEI, why the technology has proved so popular and what’s in store for the future.

FH: Why did you decide to start up ManagedLEI?

CH: Back in 2008, we all felt the pinch from the credit crunch and felt helpless and out of control as there was nothing we could do to rectify the situation. Both my partner (who has 15 years’ experience in online identity products) and I looked into some of the causes that led to this situation and stumbled across the fact that companies with no real legal entity were being set up for nothing more than trading assets and money. On further inspection, we saw that organisations like the GLEIF were looking to tackle this problem by promoting and storing all company information data in one pool. This pool could then be accessed publicly, allowing anyone to verify an entity’s identity and to view their ownership structure.

We decided that we would set up a company to promote the GLEIF’s work and to issue LEIs to end clients, as we saw that the process needed a little more automation and management. The number of lapsed LEIs was increasing as companies forgot to renew them on time, so we wanted to offer clients a full managed service to take this responsibility off their hands.

We started by offering a multiyear LEI, which rapidly became popular as it meant our clients didn’t have to worry about renewing it each year. After looking around for a supplier we found RapidLEI, which would offer us our core needs and put us a cut above the rest when providing our service.

FH: Why do you think the RapidLEI method is so popular?

CH: We looked at a multitude of Local Operating Units (LOUs) and found that RapidLEI has the most to offer – not just to us but to the end client as well. We were taken aback by the speed and thoroughness of their issuance process when obtaining our own LEI, so we decided to form a partnership straight away.

The RapidLEI API was implemented to our site very quickly, enabling us to cut costs – a saving which we have passed on to our clients. We now process many more applications than ever before.

Previously, we were seeing LEIs taking days/weeks to issue as other LOUs chose the manual process of ordering by passing documents to each other and requesting more information by email. By contrast, the RapidLEI issuance process only takes minutes.

“We were taken aback by the speed and thoroughness of their issuance process when obtaining our own LEI”

FH: How does ManagedLEI approach customer experience?

CH: A great client experience is one of our most important goals as a company and we have tackled this by making sure the ordering process and payment process is as smooth as possible. We receive requests for LEIs globally from places like the UK, Canada, Denmark and Italy, and RapidLEI’s automation technology allows us to deliver those LEIs within minutes. So shortly after the submission has been made, we send over the new LEI to the client.

We always aim to get back to customers as quickly as possible, offering a same day response even if it is to give a short update. We have introduced 3 methods of contact to cater for customer preferences (live chat, telephone and email). As we’re in the business of Identity, we take extra measures to make our activities as public as possible to inspire customer confidence in us.

We are also looking to build a following on social media platforms so that we can share news about compliance and identity needs, not just for our clients but the general public as well. We are not about just helping people obtain identity but we pride ourselves on delivering weekly news to and about the industry.

Customer is King – and Queen – and that’s the level of service we aim to deliver.

“RapidLEI’s automation technology allows us to deliver LEIs globally within minutes”

FH: How was your onboarding process with RapidLEI?

CH: The onboarding process was really easy. All actions towards the setup were dealt with quickly and efficiently from sales to support and, most importantly, the validation team. When you make the right choice as a company you reward yourself with a pat on the back and this is the case with us when choosing to partner with RapidLEI.

FH: What do you see for the future of LEIs?

CH: LEIs are already playing a huge role by letting people and organisations know “Who is Who” and “Who owns Who”, but I see LEIs as only scratching the surface right now. Having the correct and current company data readily available will help so many institutions that need to validate their clients on a daily basis, by removing the days’ worth of admin it takes to get all the documents together and stored on local and external drives.

LEIs in products such as SMIME certificates, X.509 certificates and digital signing certificates will act as a confidence boost for anyone viewing what has been sent to them digitally. At Trusted Identity we believe in this process so much that we are using an Extended Validation certificate to encrypt data on our website. This clearly shows in the browser’s URL bar who ManagedLEI is run by and our LEI number (see images below).

Order your LEI now at shop.managedlei.com.

*Special Offer*

ManagedLEI are offering clients an even bigger discount on its multiyear LEIs. They are offering clients a free year of LEI management when purchasing any 3, 4 and 5yr LEI within the next 3 months. (Valid 1^st November 2019 to 31^st January 2020 – quote this interview to claim)

ManagedLEI’s promise is annual renewal and updates to the data held within the LEI, so that it remains live and up to date for the duration.