EU CRYPTO REGISTER · GLOSSARY · LAST VERIFIED 30 June 2026

What is GLEIF (the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation)?

GLEIF is the Switzerland-based foundation that manages the global Legal Entity Identifier system on behalf of the G20 Financial Stability Board. GLEIF maintains the authoritative public database of LEIs and the corporate records associated with them, free to access at search.gleif.org.

What is the exact legal definition?

GLEIF was established by the Financial Stability Board on the mandate of the G20 in 2014 to coordinate the global LEI system. Its constitution and governance are summarised on the GLEIF site. The LEI itself is standardised in ISO 17442. Source: GLEIF governance page.

What does it actually mean in practice?

Why a global identifier exists. The 2008 financial crisis exposed the difficulty of mapping counterparty exposures across borders when each jurisdiction used different identifiers. The G20 commissioned a single global identifier; GLEIF is the operational outcome.

How GLEIF works. GLEIF does not directly issue LEIs. It accredits Local Operating Units (LOUs) - typically national or regional registries - that issue and maintain LEIs in their jurisdiction. GLEIF aggregates all LOU output into a single public global database.

What you can do with GLEIF. Free public search at search.gleif.org. Bulk data downloads. API access for programmatic verification. The records include legal name, registered office, headquarters, ultimate parent (where disclosed), and registration status.

Relevance to MiCA. Every CASP in the ESMA register has an LEI. Cross-checking the ESMA record against the GLEIF record is the standard due-diligence step for any user verifying an exchange's corporate identity.

Where do we see this in the public record?

Example	What it shows
Headquarters	Basel, Switzerland
Mandate	Established by G20 Financial Stability Board, 2014
Public search	search.gleif.org
Database	All issued LEIs globally, updated daily

What else do users ask about this?

Is GLEIF a government body?

GLEIF is a not-for-profit foundation established under Swiss law. It operates under the supervision of the G20 Financial Stability Board's LEI Regulatory Oversight Committee, not as a government body itself.

How fresh is the GLEIF data?

Daily-refresh. LOUs publish updates to GLEIF, which aggregates them into the global pool. Annual renewal is required for each LEI; lapses are tracked.

Is GLEIF free to use?

Yes for read access. The public search and bulk downloads are free. Some commercial use cases of GLEIF data require attribution under GLEIF's open data licence.

Which sources is this entry based on?

Glossary entries on The Crypto Register are sourced from primary legal texts (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, ESMA guidelines, national regulator publications). They are not legal advice. Last verified 30 June 2026.