GS1 Hong Kong is now a Registration Agent of Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), Extending Support to the Financial Services Industry

HONG
KONG, CHINA�- Media OutReach - 15
March 2019 - GS1 Hong Kong
is now able to assist organisations with the obtaining and ongoing renewal of
Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), ensuring its customers’ need to fulfil new
regulatory reporting requirements. Following a
joint consultation on further enhancements to the over-the-counter (OTC)
derivatives regulatory regime in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong
Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will
start to mandate the use of LEIs in OTC derivative trade reporting beginning 1
April 2019. In addition, all legal entities operating in financial markets in
Europe must obtain an LEI as of 3 January, 2018.

GS1
has more than 40 years of experience in the identification of unique products
and entities in various sectors. It has a global network of Member
Organisations operating in 112 countries. The organisation now extends its
activities to the financial markets, offering customers a network of local registration
agents, with expertise in data validation and knowledge of local language, laws
and regulations.

GS1
Hong Kong will assist companies or individuals involved in financial trading,
with obtaining the necessary LEI in cooperation with the GLEIF accredited LEI
issuer, GS1’s Global Unit. (LEI application link: https://www.lei.direct/lei-services/register-right-away/)

What is an LEI?

An
LEI is a unique, 20-digit alpha-numeric code based on the ISO 17442 standard,
that enables the identification of legal entities participating in financial
transactions. LEIs can greatly enhance transparency, security and trust for all
market participants. For more information about LEI, please visit: https://www.gs1hk.org/our-services/legal-entity-identifier/about/overview.

The major benefits of
GS1 Hong Kong’s LEI services include:

• High Accuracy in data validation checks as GS1 Hong
  Kong have been doing this all along;
• Global support due to GS1’s global
  network of Local Registration Agents, providing “one-stop” service for
  companies or organisations that need LEIs issued in multiple countries;
• Ease in communications as we know the local language,
  supporting companies in English, Mandarin and other dialects;
• Efficiency in the LEI issuance as a result of all of the
  above.

 

“We
wanted to participate in this initiative as part of the larger collective
public/private sector effort around the world to provide greater visibility
into the entire global financial system,” said Anna Lin, Chief Executive
of GS1 Hong Kong. “Acting as a registration agent, we are proud to be able
to support even more organisations of all types by providing them
with a unique LEI,” concludes Anna.

For enquiry about the LEI registration, please
contact 2863 9777 or lei@gs1hk.org.

About GS1 Hong Kong

Founded
by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in 1989, GS1 Hong Kong is the
local chapter of GS1®, a not-for-profit, standards organisation that develops
and drives adoption of easy-to-implement global standards for business to
uniquely identify, accurately capture and automatically share vital information
about products, locations and assets. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, GS1
has over 110 national chapters in 150 countries.

GS1
Hong Kong’s mission is to empower business to grow and to improve efficiency,
safety, authenticity and sustainability across multiple sectors and facilitates
commerce connectivity through the provision of a full spectrum of platforms,
solutions and services based on our global standards. We provide a trusted
foundation for accurate, sharable, searchable and linkable data and for the
responsible use of the technologies behind its standards. We also engage with
communities of trading partners, industry organisations, government, and
technology providers to understand and respond to their business needs through
the adoption and implementation of global standards.

 

Currently,
GS1 Hong Kong has around 8,000 corporate members covering close to 20
industries including retail consumer goods, food and food services, healthcare,
apparel, logistics as well as information and technology.

For
more information about GS1 Hong Kong, please visit www.gs1hk.org.