USING THE LEI SEARCH TOOL TO CHECK AN LEI CODE
& FIND A LEGAL ENTITY
WHAT IS THE LEI INDEX?
The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) index is a global directory of free, openly accessible source of company information for use in financial transactions, KYC, and organization assurance use cases. All organizations issued with an LEI code are entered into the LEI index where they may be searched and verified by counterparties and relying parties.
The Global LEI System (GLEIS) can be searched for both level 1 data (who is who) and level 2 data (who owns whom) legal entity data.
HOW TO FIND A LEGAL ENTITY IDENTIFIER BY COMPANY NAME
If you need to search the LEI index by Company Name, Country, Issuer or other organization identity attribute we recommend you use the GLEIF LEI Search 2.0 application or the GLEIF Search LEI API referenced in our Developers section, or contact us for assistance.
WHAT DOES A LEGAL ENTITY IDENTIFIER SEARCH TELL YOU
The LEI search results will inform you of a historical record of the legal entity, including:
- Company name(s)
- Legal and HQ address and country
- The local business registry used to register the organization
- The corroboration level (e.g. how the LOU verified the organization details)
- The LEI Issuer (also known as the Global LEI Foundation accredited Legal Operating Unit, or LOU)
- The STATUS of the organization and the STATUS of the LEI code (see below).
ABOUT THE ENTITY STATUS
The Legal Entity Identifier record reveals verification information on the legal entity that can be used for global Know Your Customer (KYC), financial transactions or organization identity assurance purposes. It will tell you if the legal entity has kept its LEI code active and information up to date, and the operational status of the organization.
- ACTIVE: As of the last report or update, the Legal Entity reported that it was legally registered and operating.
- INACTIVE: It has been determined that the Entity that was assigned the LEI is no longer legally registered and/or operating, whether as a result of business closure, acquisition by or merger with another (or new) Entity, or determination of illegitimacy.
ABOUT THE LEI STATUS
- ISSUED: A new LEI registration has been completed, and the LEI code has been issued. It is not yet necessary to renew the LEI.
- LAPSED: An LEI registration that has not been renewed by the NextRenewalDate and is not known by public sources to have ceased operation.
- RETIRED: An LEI registration for an Entity that has ceased operation, without having been merged into another Entity
Note: additional less common LEI statuses are used by the GLEIF. For more information visit the LEI FAQ.
ABOUT THE VALIDATION LEVEL
- FULLY CORROBORATED: Authoritative public sources, such as business registries and other directories, or are used to validate against and corroborate the entity information submitted by the applicant and subsequently contained within the LEI record. RapidLEI refers to fully corroborated LEIs as validated.
- PARTIALLY CORROBORATED: As per Fully Corroborated, but due to conflicts of authoritative data or unavailability of data, the entity information submitted by the applicant can only be partially corroborated.
- ENTITY SUPPLIED ONLY (ESO): The entity information cannot be corroborated against public sources. The record comprises of data submitted by the legal entity only. RapidLEI prefers to not issue ESO unless absolutely necessary and refers to these types of records as non-validated.
See Validated vs. Non-Validated issuance trends in the LEI Statistics sections.
