EBA to require use of LEI for supervisory reporting purposes

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a Recommendation on the use of unique identification codes (such as the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)) for supervisory reporting purposes for every credit and financial institution in the EU to ensure that data is consistent and comparable. This Recommendation aims to harmonise the identification of legal entities, in line with proposals by the Financial Stability Board as endorsed by the G20.

The EBA recommends that competent authorities request all institutions under their supervision obtain a pre-LEI code. Competent authorities are required to:

· notify the EBA whether they intend to comply with this recommendation by 29 March;

· verify that certain covered institutions have requested pre-LEI codes by 31 March 2014; and

· verify that all other institutions that they supervise have obtained a pre-LEI by 31 December 2014.

The EBA is clear in its Decision on reporting by competent authorities that when submitting data to the EBA's database, competent authorities will be required to warrant that the data has undergone rigorous internal controls and quality checks. The EBA will conduct additional checks and can require the competent authority to make revisions.

Related links:

http://www.eba.europa.eu/documents/10180/561173/EBA-REC-2014-01+%28Recommendation+on+the+use+of+the+Legal+Entity+Identifier%29.pdf

http://www.eba.europa.eu/documents/10180/16082/EBA+DC+090+%28Decision+on+Reporting+by+Competent+Authorities+to+the+EBA%29.pdf