Brussels - 9 October 2013 - Swift announced today that the CICI Utility, the interim global legal entity identifier (LEI) solution developed in collaboration with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), has been endorsed by the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) as a pre-Local Operating Unit (LOU).
This action marks an important milestone in establishing full operational deployment of a Global Legal Entity Identifier System (GLEIS) aimed at giving regulators and firms stronger systemic risk monitoring capabilities so they can analyze positions and transactions they oversee on a global basis. In addition to the CICI Utility, the ROC endorsed two other pre-LOUs, WM Datenservice in Germany and INSEE in France.
“The endorsement from the ROC is a key milestone for this global industry led initiative,” said Paul Janssens, LEI Programme Director, Swift. “It is very exciting to see how much closer we are to achieving the necessary elements to help financial firms quickly identify counterparties and to assist regulators in evaluating whether a firm is systemically important.”
Established by Charter in January 2013, the ROC is comprised solely of global regulators and provides governance and oversight for the GLEIS. The ROC has responsibility for the development of the GLEIS according to Principles and Recommendations issued by the Financial Stability Board (FSB).
As an authorized pre-LOU, the CICI Utility will issue pre-LEIs to entities that self-register and maintain the reference data. It will make its pre-LEI database available without charges or restrictions of any kind, operating on a cost-recovery basis. The CICI Utility supports the ROC's federated framework for pre-LOUs and will continue to work with its Committee on Evaluation and Standards on procedures for the GLEIS, including orderly transfers of data between pre-LOUs.
Now that the CICI Utility has achieved global acceptance, these CICIs are pre-LEIs available for reporting to any regulator that has assented to the ROC charter and that provides for pre-LEIs in their own transaction reporting rules.
Janssens added, "The global industry and regulators have really come together to help shape the requirements necessary for establishing an efficient operating framework for a GLEIS. We are pleased to be a part of this effort."
Legal entities from all jurisdictions can use the CICI Utility to register for new globally accepted pre-LEIs to meet upcoming mandatory reporting rules anywhere in the world and to maintain the reference data on their existing pre-LEI. For further guidance on the GLEIS and the ROC, visit http://www.leiroc.org/. For further guidance on registering for pre-LEIs through the CICI Utility, visit http://www.ciciutility.org/.
About CICI Utility
Since August 2012, DTCC and Swift have implemented an interim global legal entity identifier (LEI) solution through the assignment of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Interim Compliant Identifiers (CICI). Developed in collaboration with the industry, the CICI Utility creates and assigns unique identifiers to any financial organization that engages in a transaction, and stores and validates the accuracy of the associated reference data. The solution offers the industry a tool for complying with swap data reporting regulations (and over time, better identification of counterparties for risk management). Currently, there are more than 80,000 CICIs issued to legal entities from over 140 jurisdictions. All these CICIs are eligible for reporting to trade repositories registered with the CFTC and now with the global acceptance endorsement by the ROC, to repositories in many other jurisdictions. The website for the CICI Utility is www.ciciutility.org
About Swift
Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 212 countries and territories. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, please refer to our website http://www.swift.com/ or contact:
Swift
Press Office
Tel: +32 2 655 3377
pressoffice@swift.com
