A Step Closer to Certainty in Global Identity
Providing a single, unambiguous and international way of identifying legal entities is the purpose of the GLEIF, which administers the international issue of LEIs or Legal Entity Identifiers. This week XBRL International has released a new LEI taxonomy for our stakeholders to experiment with and comment on. The LEI taxonomy is intended to provide a single and consistent way for regulators (and companies) to use LEIs within XBRL reports.
Once finalised, this taxonomy is intended to be embedded into the reporting requirements published by regulators and standards setters. It provides a single and consistent way to use LEIs inside XBRL documents, either as the primary identity or as a secondary identity, where, for example, a national company number is the primary ID currently used by a regulator.
The taxonomy contains an embedded XBRL formula in it to ensure that the LEI being submitted conforms to the requirements set out by the GLEIF. We expect that software vendors will add functionality to help users. For example, XBRL consumption software will likely access the GLEIF data holdings to confirm relevant details about the company that is reporting, or being reported on.
Comments on the new taxonomy, as well as suggestions for developing relevant and consistent guidance for its use are welcome and can be provided to the LIX, our Legal Identity in XBRL Working Group via email.
