SIX Securities Services, which runs the central securities depository (CSD) for Switzerland, has partnered The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to offer LEIs for Swiss entities.

The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) was devised to provide insight into corporate entities with the aim of greatly reducing cross-platform risk exposure. By providing LEIs together SIX Securities Services and DTCC’s Global Markets Entity Identifier utility (GMEI utility) – the largest Local Operating Unit (LOU) by share worldwide – will help regulators and market participants to aggregate and better understand their exposures, enhance market transparency and significantly improve the analysis of global systemic risk.

This partnership comes as Europe readies itself for the implementation of MiFID II on 1 January 2018. This new regulatory mandate will require all legal entities involved in a trade, including the executing, submitting or transmitting firm, on both the buy- and sell-side, to include LEIs in their European trade reporting, which effectively impacts all firms globally.

Last year, on January 1, 2016, Switzerland’s Financial Market Infrastructure Ordinance (FMIO) came into force introducing LEIs into Swiss reporting duties. Using the GMEI utility, SIX Securities Services offers Swiss entities the ability to register and renew LEIs in order to trade with European counterparties.

Ron Jordan, Managing Director of Data Services at DTCC, said: “The true value of the global LEI system will be realized when regulatory reporting covering all asset classes in every jurisdiction is required to use LEIs to identify trading parties. To drive further improvements in this crucial area, we look forward to building a strategic partnership with SIX Securities Services – a positive addition to successful collaborations worldwide with CUSIP Global Services (CGS) and TMX’s Canadian Depository for Securities (CDS) in North America as well as NordLEI in Europe.”

Valerio Roncone, Head Markets & Clients and Member of the Management Committee at SIX Securities Services, said, “In keeping with our role as a customer-owned and trusted market infrastructure we are delighted to offer our clients in Switzerland access to LEIs which can only enhance their ability to comply with future regulation. With the launch of our SIX Trade Repository, the timing for this agreement could not be better.”