The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has announced that J.P. Morgan has become the first Validation Agent in the Global LEI System.

J.P. Morgan and LEI issuer, Business Entity Data (BED), a wholly owned subsidiary of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), have together issued the first LEI under the new Validation Agent model, via BED’s GMEI Utility service.

The Validation Agent Framework, announced by GLEIF in September 2020, enables financial institutions to boost their customer experience, accelerate client lifecycle management, and reduce costs by using know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) onboarding procedures to facilitate LEI issuance for their clients.

Furthermore, Validation Agents can also add client value and achieve market differentiation. By expanding LEI issuance beyond clients that require an LEI for financial compliance, a Validation Agent can equip its business client base with globally recognised identities that can be used in new services and across borders with any counterparty or supplier around the world.