Frequently asked questions

In order not to lose its validity, an LEI must be renewed every year - this applies equally to all LEIs worldwide. Will you remember to do this every year? And do you feel like filling out the application every year? 

Smart LEI is the solution: simply take out a subscription with us at Smaer LEI and we will include the following services:

• One-off, minimal information on the application (company name and register number are usually sufficient)
• Annual, automatic renewal of your LEI including automatic direct debit and invoice
• An annual certificate confirming the validity of your LEI

To allow us to act on your behalf, you must give us written authorisation during the order process.

In this case, we will of course contact you by e-mail and help you find a solution. 

Here is an overview of the benefits for you:

The user account is required to provide GS1 with a simple and secure way to manage your company data and make payments. Think of it as your control center for managing your data and LEIs. Once logged in, you can request one or more LEIs, renew LEIs, transfer LEIs from another provider to GS1 and update your account profile.

Continue to registration

Instructions - Set up user account (PDF)

Follow this link to get to the user account registration page. Please fill in the required fields and submit your registration. You will then receive a confirmation e-mail to complete your registration. Simply click on the link contained in the e-mail and you will be automatically redirected to your user account. Note: If you do not receive an e-mail reply immediately, please also check your spam folder.

If you have forgotten your password, this is not a big problem. Simply go to the login page. Next to the login button you will find the option "Forgot password" to request a new one. The first step is to enter the e-mail address of your user account. You will then receive an e-mail with a link (check your spam folder if you have not received the e-mail after a few minutes). Click on the link and you will be redirected to a lei.direct page where you can set a new password.

Before we can change the contact on a user account, we need to know that you are an authorized representative of the organization that owns the account. Please contact us by phone or email and we will get in touch with you to carry out your request. The security of your data is our top priority - hence the extra precautions.

Please refer to our price list. All fees related to the issuance and renewal of LEIs are charged on a cost recovery basis in accordance with GLEIF requirements. Prices are subject to change at any time. 

Price list (PDF)

We require an advance payment via our online portal and receipt of funds in our bank account before we can start the LEI issuance process. 
You can find further help in the instructions for the payment process.

Yes, that's it! Transactions on the LEI.direct portal are secured by the Ingenico payment system (https://payment-services.ingenico.com). All information exchanged to process the payment is encrypted using the SSL protocol. This data cannot be recognized, intercepted or used by third parties and nothing is stored on GS1's computer systems.

GS1 offers a wide range of payment options:

PREFERRED: Credit cards (Visa/Mastercard/Maestro)

Bank transfer (DE/BE)

SOFORTBanking

The refund guidelines can be found in the General Terms and Conditions of the LEI.direct portal.

"The LEI price does not include VAT. In order for the reverse charge system to apply, a valid VAT identification number must be submitted as part of the application process. VAT will not be charged for countries outside the EU."

Although the company data may be correct at the time of registration, the reference data associated with a company record may change over time. For this reason, users should return to the LEI.direct portal annually to renew their record via the renewal process.

If nothing has changed since the last renewal, you can go directly to direct renewal, pay the renewal fee and submit the application. If data has changed, e.g. the address of the company, you have the option to make the changes before applying for renewal.

The GS1 validation team performs a validation check for all applications submitted via the LEI.direct portal.

Failure to renew a record annually may result in the LEI being non-compliant with FSB and ROC recommended practices and in some cases may be an indication of non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

Please note that early renewal of your LEI will extend the validity of your LEI for a further 12 months from the current expiration date. For example, if your LEI expires on December 15, 2022 and you renew it on October 30, 2022, the next renewal date for your LEI will be December 15, 2023.

Guide - LEI renewal (PDF)

Users can request that the management of their existing LEI records currently registered with another LOU be transferred to GS1.

To transfer your LEI(s) to GS1, you must first create a user account and then complete the form under the Transfer service. For additional assistance, please read the Guide to transferring existing LEIs.

While the identifier itself will not change, the ongoing maintenance and management of the LEI will be transferred. There is no fee for the transfer unless the current registration status of your LEI has lapsed. In this case, you will be charged a renewal fee at the time of transfer. As transfer requests involve the coordination of two different LOUs, this process may take longer than the other action requests.

Guide - Transferring an existing LEI (PDF)

If you have multiple LEIs that you want to transfer to GS1, you don't have to fill out the transfer form for each one. We have a special process that does the work for you. You only need to add some mandatory information (such as the LEI number) to a file.

Get in touch with your support team by phone or email for more information about this process.

We do our best to issue LEIs as quickly as possible, and with agents around the world, we are able to serve you in just a few hours if all required documents have been provided or are easily accessible.

A more typical turnaround time is around 36 - 48 hours from the time you submit your application to the time we forward your details to GLEIF for publication.

Simply log in to your lei.direct user account, go to "Manage your LEI data", search for the appropriate LEI and update the data. Don't forget to save your changes before you leave the page. We will validate the changes and you will receive a confirmation once the updates have been published on gleif.org. Of course, updates are completely free and can be made at any time. 

Legal Entity Events typically reflect a major change in an organization and therefore need to be reflected in the LEI reference data. The regulatory authorities have stipulated that these events must be recorded:

• Change of legal or corporate name
• Change of legal or head office address
• (De-)mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and dissolutions
• Corporate actions in relation to international branches
• Bankruptcy, liquidation, insolvency, dissolution
• Changes in umbrella fund structures

If you are unsure whether your organization should report a corporate event, please contact us for assistance.

The information on the consolidation of the parent company is based on the existing accounting definitions implemented in the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or the United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), but other accounting standards are also accepted.

The immediate consolidating parent of Entity X is the lowest level legal entity that prepares consolidated financial statements that consolidate Entity X, based on the definition of consolidation applicable to that parent.
The ultimate consolidating parent of Entity X is the ultimate legal entity that prepares consolidated financial statements that consolidate Entity X, based on the accounting consolidation definition applicable to that parent. The ultimate accounting consolidating parent may not have its own accounting consolidation relationships.
All legal entities must report relationship data for both the direct and ultimate accounting consolidating parent. Each relationship must be reported either through a relationship record or a reporting exception record.

1. If you know that your legal entity has a relationship of the relevant type, but you need to withhold the details due to legal concerns, you must provide an opt-out reason.
2. If the legal entity does not have a parent company according to the definition used, there are these non-consolidating exceptions: NATURAL_PERSON, NON_CONSOLIDATING or NO_KNOWN_PERSON.
3. Parent without LEI: NO_LEI

IMPORTANT: Financial consolidation is a fundamental requirement for reporting on the parent company. Ownership through equity or shares is not sufficient in this context. See FAQ XX Documents and information required in addition to the regular LEI data, such as company name and address:

• Parent LEI, if available.
• Proof of financial consolidation (e.g. annual report of the parent company or formal submission of annual financial statements)
• Date or year in which the relationship began
• Date of filing, if applicable.

If you can provide web links to the documents, we would be grateful.

Only subordinate entities the relationship information to their parent entities. This serves to minimize difficulties caused by complex business rules and deduplication dependent on the reporting entity. This also applies to a parent entity instructing its child entity(ies) to report parent information and to delegated reporting by a parent entity on behalf of child entities.

Unlike foreign subsidiaries of a parent company, which are separately incorporated as independent legal entities or organized under the laws of the host countries, an international branch is legally dependent on the (main) legal entity to which it belongs and cannot exist without its (main) legal entity. International branches may have independent regulatory reporting requirements and are therefore eligible for their own LEIs. A branch relationship describes the relationship between an international branch and its head office. You must provide evidence linking the international branch to its (head office) legal entity. The head office must have an LEI, which you must also provide when obtaining the branch LEI. You must provide the address information and additional reference data of the branch. For an international branch, the legal address must be the address of the company in the host country and the head office address must be the address of the head office. Normally, the branch is registered in a publicly accessible local business register, a local government register or a tax register, and the relevant information must be provided. A branch does not need to have a direct or ultimate accounting consolidating parent relationship.

If you retrieve LEI information in the Global LEI System on gleif.org, you will receive status information for each data record.

Overview of the status information

PENDING VALIDATION

The application for an LEI has been submitted. The data is currently being verified.

ISSUED

All data has been verified and the LEI has been issued. This also means that all data from the past year has been verified.

LAPSED

The last time the data was checked for accuracy was more than a year ago, so this LEI record is no longer up to date.

MERGED

The legal entity of this LEI has merged with another legal entity. The independent legal entity therefore no longer exists.

RETIRED

The legal entity of this LEI no longer exists and has not merged with another legal entity.

PENDING TRANSFER

A transfer to another issuing office (LOU) has been requested for this LEI. After the transfer has been completed, the LEI receives the status ISSUED.

PENDING ARCHIVING

The LEI is in the process of being transferred to another LEI issuing organization (LOU).

DUPLICATE

An LEI for an entity for which an LEI already existed. One of the LEIs is declared invalid and receives the status DUPLICATE.

ANNULLED

The LEI was declared incorrect or invalid after it was issued.

TRANSFERRED

The LEI record has been transferred to another LEI issuer (LOU). The information about the new LEI issuer is stored in another LEI record.

Please visit gleif.org and enter the name of your organization in the search box on the main website.

Any person authorized by the applicant organization may apply for and manage one or more LEIs. This may be a direct employee, an employee of a controlling interest or a third party who has been given explicit permission to register on behalf of the company. Authorized representatives who are not listed as officers of the company for which the LEI is being registered must provide a signed letter of authorization.

You can also authorize GS1 and we will manage the entire process for you, including the transfer of your LEI(s) to GS1 and their timely annual renewal. By letting GS1 manage your LEI(s), you can be truly confident.

Letter of authorization SmartLEI

Letter of authorization ClassicLEI

Continue to registration

Apply for one or more LEIs
Extend the term of your LEIs
Transfer LEIs from other LOUs
Update your account profile

Create a unique user name that is not used anywhere else. Do not use any part of your e-mail address or personal information such as your name, street name, telephone number or birthday. Memorize your user name and do not write it down.

Best practice:

• Use a unique password that is not used anywhere else.
• Use upper and lower case letters along with numbers and special characters (@, %, &, #).

Worst practice:

• Using your username or email address.
• Include personal information (your name, phone number, etc.).
• Writing down your password.
• Share your password with others.
• Save your password in a browser.

The error occurs when the GS1 team is in the process of validating the data you have entered. If you see this error message, please contact us and we will reset the status immediately so that you can access the data again.

For security reasons, we need to make sure that the e-mail address you enter is yours. Therefore, we will send you an e-mail after you have submitted your registration (sometimes this is redirected to your spam folder). In this e-mail you must confirm your registration. Only after this confirmation are you authorized to access the portal.
So make sure you have followed this process before you try to log in.
Please note that the confirmation link in the e-mail is only valid for 24 hours. If you have not clicked on it during this time or have never received the confirmation email, please contact our support team.