Legal Entity Identifier is the key to really getting control of KYC. A recent webinar on LEI in the EU by ESMA showed what is happening.

MiFID II 

For clients of EU investment firms LEI is mandatory (no-LEI no trade) and the LEI data supports the regulatory objectives, see below:

Source & Copyright©2019 - ESMA 

And the plan is to:

• Focus on LEI of clients and issuers
  • Key drivers
    • LEI of clients and issuers is key to achieve MiFID II objectives
    • Extraterritorial element calls for coordinated action at EU level
    • Need to ensure even playing field due to multiple supervisory approaches.
  • Key outcomes
    • Common approach to monitoring missing or inaccurate LEIs
    • Level playing field by ensuring minimum supervisory approach across EU

ESMA’s strategy on LEI is:

• Governance – Centralization and close coordination of policy and data quality management work across all sectoral legislations within ESMA
• Standardization – Development of a common Data Reporting Standards Framework – Use of ISO (e.g. LEI, ISIN) and other international standards
• Implementation – Systematic development of Data Action Plans for all data collected by NCAs and ESMA
• Opportunities – Assessing RegTech trends and potential use of RegTech at ESMA and NCAs
• Communication – Increasing communication on ESMA use of data (publications, seminars, reports, studies, etc.)

Upcoming rules

They explained how they are going to deal with EMIR refit, and how LEI in the new SFTR technical standards.

(For further details see.)