GLEIF clarifies Validation Agent role for banks and FIs

It announced that financial institutions (FIs) worldwide can realize a variety of cost, efficiency, and customer experience benefits by assuming a new ‘Validation Agent’ role within the Global LEI System. FIs acting as Validation Agents simplify LEI issuance for their clients, reduce time-to-revenue, and future proof their institutions for digital innovation. The Validation Agent Framework is a new operational model in the Global LEI System. 

By leveraging their know-your-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and other regulated ‘business-as-usual’ onboarding processes, Validation Agents can now obtain an LEI for their customers when verifying a client’s identity during initial onboarding or during a standard client refresh update, according to the official press release. 

Until now, legal document and data collection procedures, which are conducted as standard to verify the identity of a client entity within a bank’s onboarding process, have been replicated within the Global LEI System by a Local Operating Unit (LOU), as part of the LEI issuance process. By becoming Validation Agents, FIs can spare their clients from these duplicative processes and deliver a faster and more convenient customer experience.