As financial markets rely more heavily on verified legal-entity data, British LEI explains why UK companies may encounter LEI requirements during securities trading, UK MiFIR or UK EMIR reporting, broker onboarding, or cross-border dealings with regulated financial institutions.

For many UK business owners, the first encounter with an LEI code comes at the least convenient moment. A transaction gets blocked, a broker declines to execute an order, or a financial intermediary cannot complete onboarding because something called an LEI is missing. British LEI is an Official LEI Registration Agent supporting UK entities, working in cooperation with EQS Group, a GLEIF-accredited LEI issuer, helping UK businesses register, renew, and manage their LEIs. But before getting into the process, it helps to understand what an LEI is, who needs one, and why it matters.

What is an LEI code? 

LEI stands for Legal Entity Identifier. It is a 20-character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies a legal entity, whether that is a company, a fund, a public-sector body, or another organisation participating in financial transactions.

The system was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when regulators discovered that tracking who was on each side of a transaction was surprisingly difficult. Large financial groups, including Lehman Brothers, operated through complex networks of legal entities across multiple jurisdictions, with no consistent identifier connecting them. LEIs were designed to solve exactly that problem.

Today, LEIs are based on the ISO 17442 standard and managed through the Global LEI System, with the Global LEI Foundation, or GLEIF, responsible for its operational integrity. LEI records are made available through the public Global LEI Index maintained by GLEIF, making it an open, globally recognised standard for entity identification.

Each LEI record contains two layers of information. Level 1 covers who the entity is: its legal name, registered address, jurisdiction, and registration authority details whereavailable. Level 2 provides information on direct and ultimate accounting parent relationships, where applicable and reported. It is not a beneficial ownership register and should not be used as a substitute for AML, KYB, or UBO checks.

Who needs an LEI? 

Originally, LEI adoption was driven mainly by financial regulation and market reporting. Since then, LEIs have become relevant to a wider group of legal entities because banks, brokers, investors, regulated counterparties, and cross-border partners increasingly rely on standardised entity identifiers.

The most direct case is securities trading. If a UK company wants to buy or sell shares, bonds, ETFs, or other financial instruments through a broker or investment firm where UK MiFIR transaction reporting applies, the firm will normally require an LEI before executing the order. This is often described as “no LEI, no trade”: under UK MiFIR, firms subject to transaction reporting obligations must ensure clients eligible for an LEI have one before executing a reportable transaction on their behalf.

LEIs are also used in other reporting frameworks. Under UK EMIR, UK counterparties entering into derivative trades need an LEI to meet reporting obligations. In simple terms, LEIs are most likely to matter when a business interacts with regulated financial markets, brokers, banks, investors, or cross-border counterparties. UK non-financial counterparties are not generally in scope of the UK SFTR reporting regime, so businesses should check whether their status and activity bring them within the rules.

For UK companies providing ICT services to EU financial institutions, DORA may also create practical LEI relevance. Financial entities subject to DORA must maintain registers of information on ICT third-party arrangements, and legal-person ICT third-party providers may be identified using an LEI or EUID, with LEI used for legal persons registered outside the EU.

In simple terms, LEIs are most likely to matter when a business interacts with regulated financial markets, brokers, banks, investors, or cross-border counterparties.

Not every UK company needs an LEI today. But the following businesses are more likely to be asked for one.

You may need an LEI if your company:

• trades shares, bonds, ETFs, or other financial instruments through a broker or investment firm where UK MiFIR transaction reporting applies;

• enters into derivative contracts reportable under UK EMIR;

• is an in-scope financial counterparty or branch with reporting obligations under UK SFTR;

• is a fund, investment vehicle, or regulated financial entity supervised by the FCA;

• provides ICT services to EU financial institutions subject to DORA;

• is asked to provide an LEI by a bank, financial intermediary, investor, regulator, or foreign counterparty.

If your business sells goods or services locally and does not interact with financial markets, you may not need an LEI right now. But as regulated financial workflows increasingly rely on verified entity data, the question often becomes whether having one in place could reduce friction later.

Why an LEI matters beyond compliance 

It is easy to treat the LEI as another regulatory checkbox. That framing undersells what it actually does.

An LEI gives your organisation a verified, globally recognised legal-entity identifier. When a counterparty, investor, or financial institution looks up your code in the GLEIF database, they can see your verified legal reference data and, where applicable, parent-relationship information. That kind of transparency can reduce onboarding friction, support due diligence, and help build credibility with serious business partners.

For companies already operating across borders or planning to expand internationally, having an LEI in place early is often good practice. It can also make the organisationeasier to identify and verify in global market workflows.

How to get an LEI 

LEIs are issued by GLEIF-accredited LEI issuers, also known as Local Operating Units, or LOUs. The process is straightforward: you submit your company’s registration details, the LEI issuer verifies them against official sources, and the code is often issued within one to two business days, depending on the issuer, verification requirements, and completeness of the application.

One thing worth knowing: an LEI must be renewed annually. If renewal is missed, the registration status becomes “Lapsed” in the GLEIF database. A lapsed LEI remains the same identifier, but its reference data is overdue for re-validation. Some reporting, trading, or onboarding processes may require the LEI record to be current.

British LEI supports LEI registration and renewal for businesses in the UK, with same-day processing available on business days when verification is successful and the application details are complete. To register or renew an LEI, visit britishlei.co.uk.

Those who have ever found themselves wondering how much money their colleagues make may soon have their answer. A new proposed Spanish law may make it a legal obligation to reveal workers’ salaries, but at this time, the only certainty for citizens is that the government will miss the deadline to introduce the law.

Spain to miss a key deadline despite insisting it is a ‘priority’

The key European Union deadline for Spain to introduce the new labour law, which will make salaries more transparent and reduce wage discrimination, is just days away, on Sunday, June 7. However, according to the Ministry of Labour, there is still no final draft of the law, and the process of producing the draft law may still take weeks, despite the new regulation being classified as “urgent” and a “priority.”

The EU’s pay transparency initiative aims at tackling wage secrecy and especially reducing gender-based pay discrimination. However, Spain lags behind as it still does not have the required royal decree to be able to implement the proposed changes.

According to the Secretary of State for Labour and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey, even if the June 7 deadline is missed, Spain has a “reasonable timeframe” to comply with the law and has noted that the regulation has still not received widespread approval among the 27 member states proposed to implement it. Mr Pérez Rey insists that the law is “one of the legislative priorities” for his department, and that Spain played a “very prominent role” in the law’s approval in Brussels.

What would change under the new law?

To be specific, the law, Directive 2023/970, is expected to significantly increase salary transparency in a number of ways.

First, companies would be required by law to include pay ranges in job listings, which only occurs in some 18 per cent of job listings in the country. This would mean an end to phrases like “competitive salary,” which provide job seekers with no real information about what the pay will be like; oftentimes, those looking for a job are clueless about the pay until they have already gone through with the interview and are offered a job.

Companies would also be obligated to respond to employee requests for salary comparisons, and justify any pay gaps of 5 per cent or more between colleagues, compared to the current threshold of 25 per cent.

Human resources departments would be obligated to explain and justify promotions, bonuses, and general pay increases.

This proposed law would also ban confidentiality clauses in contracts that prevent employees from discussing their salaries, and also would prohibit employers from asking potential candidates about previous salaries.

The aim: Transparency for job seekers and employees who are unsure where they stand

For those seeking a job, the law may help to provide assurance and transparency when it comes to the role they will take on at that particular company. It may also provide more information about potential salary increases, and help them to make an informed decision if they are choosing between two job offers.

For those already employed, the new legislation could come a long way towards knowing if they are being paid significantly more or less than their colleagues.

The law would also help to eradicate gender-based pay discrimination, which Brussels believes disproportionately penalises women.

Will the law actually help the average resident in Spain?

Spain’s method of adopting the law change through a royal decree would allow them to bypass a parliamentary vote, but would hinder broader legal changes, since it reduces the power to amend existing laws. For this reason, critics have claimed that the final draft of the law may not be as groundbreaking as intended when it comes to employee/employer transparency.

It is also notable that while the law would reveal significant pay gaps and detect large and unexplained differences in salaries, it would not allow colleagues to look at each other’s exact payroll.

For now, the extent of the law’s efficacy in Spain, the real-life changes that will result from it in job listings, interviews, and the workplace, as well as when it will be implemented in the country, still remain to be seen.

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