Established by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in 2014, GLEIF is a supra-national, not-for-profit organization that regulates and supports the implementation and use of the LEI—a universal business identity system backed and overseen by the G20, the FSB and the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC), a group of worldwide public authorities.

By utilizing ‘business-as-usual’ onboarding processes, Certizen Technology's Validation Agent status enables it to deliver a seamless client experience while fostering significant enhancements in trading dynamics and promoting faster decision-making. It will also ease and streamline LEI issuance in support of the People's Bank of China's aim to promote the application and implementation of the LEI in China.

With the support of GLEIF and the People's Bank of China, Certizen Technology will leverage the LEI to enrich their product and service offering across multiple market sectors to further advance 'opening-up' and bolster support for free trade and cross-border business interactions. This includes leveraging the data elements of the LEI in conjunction with digital certificates to integrate and associate an organization’s data together with the identity of individuals acting on its behalf. This will significantly contribute to increase market transparency, facilitate trusted cross-border trade, and support global regulatory alignment.

Eva Chan, CEO of Certizen Technology, comments: “Obtaining Validation Agent status marks a key strategic opportunity and reflects an important step forward in our vision to become a leader in corporate identity management. We are committed to leveraging the powerful capabilities of the LEI to enable secure and trustworthy digital interactions across borders, helping to realize the full potential of efforts to support opening up and promote increased international recognition of local enterprises."

Demand for LEI adoption is anticipated to increase in China amid ongoing regional and national efforts to simplify and facilitate foreign investment and trade. This includes the recently announced pilot zone for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation in East China’s Shanghai, which aims to advance international and regional e-commerce exchanges by establishing a cross-border interoperability platform for digital identities that connects with global standards, including the LEI. The initiative complements successful existing free trade zone projects, such as the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Stephan Wolf, CEO of GLEIF, comments: "The Global LEI System provide a standardized, interoperable foundation to support the rapid digitalization of complex trading relationships, facilitating more transparent and efficient cross-border data flows. The continued expansion of the Validation Agent network—both in China and around the world—promises to be a catalyst for the transformation of global value chains by increasing adoption of the LEI, and we welcome Certizen Technology's commitment to promoting greater trust and transparency."

Over 2.5 million legal entities around the world already identify themselves internationally using an LEI. It is a 20-character code connected to a verified business registration and information record in the Global LEI Index, a data bank maintained by GLEIF and made available to everyone, free of charge. No two LEIs are ever the same. One LEI represents one legal entity, meaning any third party anywhere in the world can cross-reference who an organization claims to be against a legitimate and verified data source.

The Global LEI System is the infrastructure that enables LEIs to be issued to legal entities globally. GLEIF’s Validation Agent Framework was introduced in 2020 to enable financial institutions and other supervised organizations involved in legal entity identity verification and validation to obtain and maintain LEIs for their clients in cooperation with accredited LEI Issuers. There are more than 15 Validation Agents globally, with the network spanning Africa, Australia, China, Europe, India, the Middle East, and North America.