GLEIF LEI Lookup API: Resolve Legal Entity Identifiers Without an API Key
Look up Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) and registered company data from the GLEIF global registry. Search by company name or LEI code. No API key required.
The actor referenced in this article. Pay only for results delivered.
Every regulated financial transaction, cross-border contract, and counterparty verification eventually hits the same question: who, legally, is this company? The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) answers it. The GLEIF LEI Lookup actor gives you programmatic access to the entire GLEIF registry: no API key, no account setup, no rate-limit negotiations.
What is a Legal Entity Identifier?
An LEI is a 20-character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies a legal entity participating in financial transactions. Mandated by regulators across the EU (MiFID II, EMIR), the UK, and beyond, LEIs are the closest thing financial markets have to a universal company ID.
The GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) maintains the authoritative global registry of all issued LEIs, over 2.4 million entities as of 2026.
What the actor returns
For each entity, the actor returns:
- LEI code: the 20-character identifier
- Legal name: the registered legal name, not the trading name
- Entity form: SOLE_PROPRIETOR, PARTNERSHIP, LIMITED_LIABILITY_COMPANY, etc.
- Jurisdiction: the country or subdivision of incorporation
- Legal and headquarters addresses: full structured address
- Operational status: ACTIVE, INACTIVE, ANNULLED
- BIC codes: SWIFT/BIC codes where available (useful for banking entities)
- Registration authority: which local registry issued the LEI
- Entity category: BRANCH, FUND, SOLE_PROPRIETOR, or GENERAL
Two search modes
Search by company name: pass any company name and the actor searches the GLEIF registry, returning the closest matches. Useful when you have a name from a contract or invoice and need to resolve it to a verified legal entity.
Search by LEI code: pass a known LEI to retrieve the full entity record. Useful for enrichment pipelines where upstream systems already carry LEI codes.
Use cases
KYB and counterparty verification: before onboarding a business partner, resolve their LEI to confirm legal name, jurisdiction, and active status. Combine with the Company KYB Resolver to match a list of names to LEIs and SEC EDGAR CIKs in one run.
Financial compliance pipelines: MiFID II and EMIR require LEI codes on transaction reports. Use the actor to validate or enrich LEI fields before submission.
Fund administration: identify investment vehicles, sub-funds, and umbrella structures. GLEIF includes fund entities with full hierarchy data.
Procurement and supplier onboarding: verify that a supplier’s registered legal name matches their invoice name before releasing payment.
Data enrichment: bulk-resolve company names from CRM or contract databases to their LEIs, then use those LEIs as stable foreign keys across datasets.
Running it via MCP in Claude
search by name: "Deutsche Bank"
search by LEI: "7LTWFZYICNSX8D621K86"
maxResults: 10No credentials needed. The actor calls the GLEIF public REST API directly.
Pricing
Free to run: you pay only for Apify compute time. The GLEIF registry is publicly accessible and the actor makes no paid API calls.
Explore the scraper referenced in this article: inputs, outputs, and pricing, then run it on Apify.
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