LEI data quality: Why accuracy, completeness and presentation make the difference

15 Juli 2025

In an increasingly digital and globalised economy, high-quality data is the driving force behind trust, compliance and innovation. A key element of this is the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) – a globally recognised identifier for legal entities. But only if the underlying LEI data also meets the highest quality standards can it realise its full potential. This is precisely where GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, comes in – with structured data quality management and precise quality criteria.

What makes LEI data reliable?

The quality of LEI data is assessed based on twelve defined criteria as part of the GLEIF Data Quality Management Framework. This blog examines three of these criteria: Accuracy, Completeness, and Representation – key factors in the global usability and trustworthiness of any LEI number.

1. Accuracy: mirroring real facts

Accurate data is the backbone of a functioning LEI registration. It guarantees that the information stored about a legal entity matches official sources, free from recognisable errors or inconsistencies. In June, GLEIF achieved an impressive accuracy of 99.99% with 14 different validation methods. These include validations for correct legal form categorisation and country-specific postcode formats.

Conclusion: A precisely maintained LEI number facilitates transparent and legally compliant transactions worldwide.

2. Completeness: Don’t miss any information

A complete LEI data record is the basis for well-founded risk analyses and regulatory assessments. Completeness refers to the full recording of all mandatory fields as part of LEI registration, including legal names, addresses and, where applicable, relationships to parent companies and subsidiaries.

A quality score of 99.99% was again achieved in the month under review. Among other things, GLEIF verifies that duplicate name entries have been avoided, all necessary legal codes have been correctly assigned, and additional information has been provided where standards are missing.

3. Presentation: uniform and standardised

The uniform presentation of LEI data promotes smooth integration into IT systems, regulatory applications and global market processes. GLEIF assesses whether all data formats and character encodings, such as those specified in ISO 20275, are used correctly.

GLEIF also achieved a convincing 99.99% data quality in this category, demonstrating the effective implementation of strict formatting standards as part of LEI registration.

Conclusion: Quality is the key to the global trust infrastructure

LEI, LEI number and LEI registration are more than just technical terms – they stand for trust, transparency and standardisation in a networked world. With its continuous improvements in data quality management, GLEIF demonstrates the importance of reliable data for financial institutions, regulators and market participants.

By consistently refining the criteria of accuracy, completeness and presentation, GLEIF not only makes LEI data more robust, but also future-proofs it for new digital use cases.