FSB sets out ways to improve the adoption of LEI for cross-border payments

The FSB has published a report exploring options to improve the adoption of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), in particular for use in cross-border payments. The report explores the benefits that could accrue from the use of the LEI in cross-border payment transactions and sets out recommendations and options to promote broader LEI adoption to assist in achieving the goals of the G20 roadmap to enhance cross-border payments.

The report found that poor data quality, fragmentation in data sources and limited standardisation of data exchange cause complexity when processing cross-border payments, which results in increased cost, limited speed and limited transparency.

The report sets out three actions to be taken:

1. Review the scope, technical and operational requirements of existing and proposed global digital identifiers for both legal entities and natural persons and analyse the need for a decentralised proxy registry;
2. Determine the next steps to promote the use of a (global) digital unique identifier framework and decentralised proxy registry in jurisdictions; and
3. If necessary: Implementation and progress monitoring.