As everyone makes their way back to work following a glorious, if politically fuelled summer, it feels that the push has started towards the end of the year.

As I sit here thinking about what to write, someone asked me about LEIs, so I thought I would write this blog as there seems to be continued confusion.

Let’s start with the basics, a Legal Entity Identifier or LEI, is a unique way to identify legal entities or structures including companies, charities and trusts. Even the G20 endorsed the need for these and when the 20 digit alpha-numeric code is allocated to you, it is included in a global data system. This enables every legal entity or structure, that is a party to a relevant financial transaction, to be identified in any jurisdiction. It is a requirement under MiFID II for a LEI to be obtained to enable trading in certain financial instruments and to enable reporting of those trades.

So that all sounds quite simple, but the issue is that there doesn't seem to be a consistent approach to this.

Some SIPP operators may have already registered for a LEI prior to MiFID II but there has not been a requirement to register SIPPs under MiFID II because SIPPs are individual products and not legal entities as such. However, this has been subject to some debate and interpretation with a number of investment managers expecting a SIPP to have a LEI number now. If the SIPP doesn't have the number, the investment manager may refuse to trade on its behalf.



In addition, if they are offering discretionary and/or advisory managed services, where the stockbroker undertakes the suitability monitoring on the portfolio they will terminate their contract with the scheme.

It is less confusing for a SSAS as it is the Trust that registers and so that is done individually with a SSAS, rather than at a provider level, as you see with a SIPP.

In the run up to MiFID II, way back in January 2018, investment managers offered to arrange LEI registration for a discounted fee but it is likely that any newly established SSAS will need to go through this process themselves unless they can persuade their investment manger to help them put.

AMPS have been in discussion, on behalf of the SIPP industry, with the FCA and the latest newsletter highlights that the FCA has confirmed it is the entity carrying out the transactional reporting that is required to renew the LEI. This means that if a scheme has an LEI but is not carrying out any reporting then they do not need to renew the LEI.

Another case of something that appears simple becoming complex due to the regulations placed on the investment managers.