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.