Legal Entity Identifier

An LEI is an identity tag for an organization that can enter contracts, not a permission slip to make home loans. One code is meant to belong to one legal entity. The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) supports the system that issues and publishes these codes. The public directory is often described as showing who an entity is and, where data exist, who owns whom. That is reference data, not a U.S. licensing decision. HMDA reporting may require a filer to have an LEI. That belongs on the HMDA page as context. It is not part of the core sentence “what an LEI is.”

GLEIF describes the LEI as a unique 20-character code based on ISO 17442, administered in the Global LEI System. This freeze names that framework. It does not claim U.S. mortgage-universal coverage.

Some institution joins use LEI-bearing filings. If LEI is treated as “the lender’s license number,” profile identity and HMDA joins will be misexplained.

A mortgage company that files HMDA may show an LEI on that filing. A small local originator might have no LEI at all. Both can still be lenders. Only one of those facts is about the identifier.

• Home Mortgage Disclosure Act
• Lender
• Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry (NMLS)
• RSSD ID

• RSSD ID

An LEI identifies a legal entity in a global registry. It does not mean the entity is authorized to originate U.S. mortgages, and this site does not treat LEI coverage as universal among lenders.