Bahrain Clear first Clearing House in Middle East to adopt ISIN-to-LEI Mapping Initiative

Manama, Aug. 23 (BNA): Bahrain Clear, a fully-owned subsidiary of Bahrain Bourse, is the first Clearing House and National Numbering Agency (NNA) in the Middle East to participate in International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) to Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), (ISIN – ISO 6166 and LEI – ISO 17442), global mapping initiative. The initiative was established to help improve transparency, minimize risk exposures, and facilitate the industry in meeting various regulatory requirements. The linkage was established to support the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) mapping initiative, which was introduced to enhance transparency of exposure (by connecting the issuer and issuance of securities), and minimize risk exposures within financial data systems. Furthermore, the ISIN-to-LEI linkage has several benefits including assisting the industry in meeting several regulatory requirements, enhanced AML/KYC, improved data quality, and increased efficiency. This initiative comes after a majority of financial institutions have prioritized the issue of data integrity, and aspired for enhanced data quality and a better approach to risk management, while reducing the chances of market abuse by means of enhanced Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. Abdulla Abdin, Bahrain Clear’s Senior Director of Operations, commented “As a registration agent for ISIN, we have registered more than 1,400 ISINs in Bahrain. The ISIN-to-LEI mapping initiative will further promote standardization and enable efficient cross-border trading and improved transparency. “Bahrain Clear is pleased to be the first Clearing House in the Middle East to be part of this global initiative. Our previous work with ANNA in terms of ISIN coding for listed securities has paved the way for the launch of this initiative,” Abdin added. Dan Kuhnel, Chairman of ANNA, said, “We are delighted that Bahrain Clear has signed up to the ISIN-to-LEI mapping service, an initiative to retrieve open-source files linking ISINs to their corresponding LEIs. The ANNA and GLEIF initiative linking two ISO standards both helps to improve transparency and aids risk and exposure management. We are so pleased to have them join the growing number of NNAs in jurisdictions around the world as the ISIN-to-LEI mapping continues to expand and improve transparency for the market.” Following the financial crisis, the goal of the drivers of the LEI initiative - the Group of 20, the Financial Stability Board and many regulators around the world – was to use the LEI to create transparency in financial transactions globally. The LEI system is a global reference data system that uniquely recognizes every legal entity or structure that is a party to a financial transaction, regardless of jurisdiction. The system comprises a 20-character, alpha-numeric code in accordance with the ISO 17442 standard produced by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). By linking the two ISO standards together, firms will be able to aggregate the data required to gain a clear view of their securities exposure within a given issuer and its related entities. The ISIN-to-LEI mapping table is freely accessible to all without restriction on both the GLEIF website: https://www.gleif.org/en/lei-data/lei-mapping/download-isin-to-lei-relationship-files and ANNA website: https://www.anna-web.org/standards/lei/