EU trading venues warn over looming end of LEI relief

Expelling issuers with no legal entity identifiers could hurt liquidity and investor strategies

Speeding towards the deadline: despite extra time offered by Esma to obtain identifiers, some issuers still lack them

European trading venues are sounding the alarm over the consequences of potentially having to delist certain securities because their issuers still do not have a legal entity identifier (LEI), once a six-month relaxation in LEI rules expires on July 2.

The consequences could include lower liquidity in those securities, a return to over-the-counter trading, migration of some business to countries outside of the European Union and an impact on investors’ strategies.

The LEI requirements were