BS ISO 17442-1:2020

What is ISO 17442-1 about?  

ISO 17442-1 is an international standard used for financial services that specifies the elements of legal entity identifier (LEI) which helps in identifying the legal entities while performing financial transactions. 

ISO 17442-1 is the first part of financial services in multi-series. ISO 17442-1 specifies the minimum elements of an unambiguous legal entity identifier (LEI) scheme to identify the legal entities relevant to any financial transaction. 

Note 1:ISO 17442-1 is applicable to “legal entities”, which include, but are not limited to, unique parties that are legally or financially responsible for the performance of financial transactions or have the legal right in their jurisdiction to enter independently into legal contracts, regardless of whether they are incorporated or constituted in some other way (e.g., trust, partnership, contractual). 

 Note 2: ISO 17442-1 includes governmental organizations, supranational and individuals when acting in a business capacity1) but excludes natural persons. It also includes international branches as defined in 3.5 

Who is ISO 17442-1 for? 

ISO 17442-1 on financial services is useful for: 

• Financial Institutions 
• Banks 
• Stock exchange 
• Investment banking  
• Financial intermediaries 
• Trader of financial instruments 
• Financial regulatory board 
• Sole trader 

Why should you use ISO 17442-1? 

Legal entity identifier (LEI) code is useful for you as it helps in improving the quality and accuracy of financial data systems for better risk management. This legal entity identifier code is useful after the global financial crisis takes place. Basically, a legal entity identifier (LEI) is a global identifier that is helpful for you while participating in legal transactions.  

ISO 17442-1 outlines the conventions for data element representation. These data representation contains character representation and length indication that also help in designing the format of legal entity identifier (LEI).   

ISO 17442-1 helps you in calculating the check digit player correctly and is useful in setting data attributes that ensure an unambiguous identification of the legal entities. This unambiguous legal identifier will help you in identifying the legal entities that are relevant to any financial transactions.  

What’s changed since the last update?  

BS ISO 17442-1:2020 supersedes BS ISO 17442:2019. BS ISO 17442-1:2020 includes some technical changes with respect to BS ISO 17442:2019. These include: 

• Clarification that international branches of entities that meet certain conditions may be assigned LEIs 
• Addition of new attributes to the LEI data record concerning the identification of the direct and ultimate parent of a legal entity 
• Addition of new attributes of the LEI data record concerning the status of the entity and the data record, and events that cause the data record to change 
• Addition of new attributes of the LEI data record in relation to investment funds 
• Clarification regarding certain existing attributes of the LEI data record