The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) announces the publication of its verifiable LEI (vLEI) Ecosystem Governance Framework.
The vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework, which has been designed from the ground up to complement GLEIF’s existing LEI governance, defines the vLEI operational model and describes how the new ecosystem’s range of vLEI issuing stakeholders will qualify for and perform their roles in the Global LEI System.
A year in the making, the Framework has been created in full accordance with standards and recommendations of the Trust Over IP Foundation (ToIP), hosted by the Linux Foundation. It is the most comprehensive framework ever developed based on the ToIP Governance Metamodel.
The Framework provides essential detail on the governance structures and processes that will shape the development of the vLEI issuance ecosystem together with the services that GLEIF will provide, including the vLEI Issuer Qualification Program, essential key and credential management services, and a communications platform for information sharing between GLEIF and its network of vLEI issuers.
The current rate of digital transformation, together with the growth in the global digital economy, has created an urgent unmet need for greater security, convenience, and ease-of-use in digital identity for organisations and the persons that represent them in either official or functional roles. Through the vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework, GLEIF has established itself as the guardian and gatekeeper of a new, standardised, and decentralised system that answers this worldwide need.
By wrapping new and existing LEIs in Verifiable Credentials, the vLEI offers a digitally trustworthy version of the LEI, allowing automated verification of legal entities and their authorised representatives, without the need for human intervention. The vLEI leverages the Global LEI System, which is the only open, standardised, and regulatory-endorsed system for legal entity identification.
Stephan Wolf, CEO, GLEIF, commented “The LEI has a critical role to play in today’s digital world through its ability to provide organisations with unique, permanent identification globally. This especially is important in the context of identifying legal entities involved in digital transactions, where manual background checks inflate costs and cause huge unnecessary delays.
“GLEIF’s vision is that every legal entity should have one global identity, and this should include a digital identity. Establishing the vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework is a significant step toward realising that vision. We’re delighted by the progress made this year and are excited to see the first real-world vLEI applications go live in 2022.”
John Jordan, Executive Director, Trust over IP Foundation commented “The vLEI is a great, early-stage example of how the potential of the ToIP Stack can be realised to digitally enhance an already established global system. It shows how a secure, interoperable, and massively scalable decentralised trust layer can enable an existing service to get ahead of critical issues relating to authentication and verification that would otherwise threaten its smooth transition to the digital realm and all the benefits that delivers.”
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