Scaling Trust Globally_ How Alexandre Kech is Shaping Organizational Identity with GLEIF.pdf

Alexandre Kech & GLEIF: Building Global Trust, Shaping Identity | The Enterprise World

1. Scaling Trust Globally: How Alexandre Kech is
Shaping Organizational Identity with GLEIF

Alexandre Kech’s path to becoming CEO of the Global Legal Entity Identifier
Foundation (GLEIF) has spanned a dynamic intersection of traditional finance,
digital innovation, and global infrastructure development.
Alexandre Kech began his career at BNY Mellon, gaining hands-on experience at
the core of global financial operations. His transition to SWIFT marked a pivotal
shift, where he developed a deep expertise in payment infrastructure and
financial messaging standards – elements that underpin scalable and secure
global systems.
Alexandre Kech’s career later evolved toward fintech and digital assets. As
co-founder of Onchain Custodian in Singapore, he played a foundational role in

2. building custody and prime brokerage solutions tailored for crypto assets. He
continued to advance the digital finance agenda as Blockchain & Digital Asset
Director at Citi Ventures, collaborating closely with the European ecosystem on
innovative blockchain applications. Most recently, he led the Digital Securities
vertical at SIX Digital Exchange, further cementing his role at the forefront of
digital financial markets.
Across all roles, Alexandre Kech has remained committed to core principles of
interoperability, transparency, and trust – values that align seamlessly with
GLEIF’s global mission. His appointment as CEO represents a strategic step
toward scaling these values on an international level, shaping a more connected
and accountable financial ecosystem.
GLEIF at the Forefront of Legal Entity Identification
GLEIF was established in 2014 by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in the wake
of the global financial crisis to promote the implementation and use of the Legal
Entity Identifier (LEI), enhancing transparency, mitigating risk, and
strengthening regulatory compliance across global financial markets.
The LEI is a standardized and universal means of identifying legal entities
engaged in financial transactions and other official interactions. It is a 20-digit
alpha-numeric code connected to a verified business registration and information
record held in the Global LEI Index, a data bank maintained by GLEIF and made
available to everyone, everywhere, free of charge.
GLEIF’s core mandate is to oversee and advance the Global LEI System, which
provides unique, standardized identifiers to legal entities worldwide. As part of
this mission, GLEIF has also pioneered a secure digital counterpart to the LEI –
the verifiable LEI (vLEI) – that meets the urgent global need for automated
authentication and verification of legal entities across a range of industries.

3. Crucially, GLEIF is steadfast in its commitment to governance, transparency, and
neutrality. Operating as a supranational, not-for-profit organization under public
oversight, GLEIF adheres to rigorous audit and compliance frameworks that
ensure accountability and integrity at every level.
The Need for Trusted Organizational Identity in the Digital World
While GLEIF’s roots lay in capital markets, the unique capacity of the LEI and
vLEI to enable organizations to trust and be trusted is applicable across all
sectors of the emerging digital economy.
For example, aligning identity frameworks across jurisdictions, industries, and
regulatory environments offers great potential. A more connected approach
enables financial institutions, regulators, and service providers to streamline
processes such as onboarding, Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, and risk
assessment – making them more efficient, reliable, and less resource-intensive.
GLEIF is uniquely positioned to solve this problem by providing a globally
recognized, open, and interoperable organizational identity framework to enable
digitized trust on a global scale. The vLEI offers instant, automated identity
verification of legal entities and the people that represent it in official and
functional roles, both inside and outside the boundaries of that organization. This
verification can be cryptographically bound to official documents, transactions
and interactions – ensuring the integrity and authenticity of organizational
activity in both physical and digital contexts. This means GLEIF is playing an increasingly integral role across the evolving
global digital infrastructure, with its influence now extending far beyond
traditional finance into emerging domains such as decentralized finance (DeFi),
tokenized assets, cross-border trade, and global value chains – helping to
eliminate identity silos and foster a more secure, transparent, and efficient global
economy.

4. Global Regulatory Momentum
Ongoing global regulatory developments are reinforcing the role of the LEI and
the vLEI in advancing transparency, interoperability, and regulatory compliance
across jurisdictions and industries.
The LEI is now embedded in over 200 regulatory frameworks and industry
standards worldwide, spanning capital markets, trade and transactions, customs,
cross-border payments, crypto-assets, digital finance, supervisory reporting,
non-financial reporting, insurance, corporate debt-lending, and anti-money
laundering.
For example, in a key recent development, the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF) has published its updated Recommendation 16 to enhance payment
transparency which, for the first time, references the LEI as a key identifier for
legal persons in domestic and cross-border transactions. This will equip financial

5. institutions and regulators with powerful information needed to further develop
tools for detecting fraud and combating financial crime.
Elsewhere, emerging initiatives such as eIDAS 2.0 and digital identity wallets
within the European Union, alongside SME-focused digital identity programs in
Africa and the Middle East, underscore the growing demand for LEI and vLEI
integration into next-generation identity infrastructures.
Looking ahead, GLEIF is committed to supporting regulators and policymakers
in the adoption of globally harmonized standards. These efforts are designed to
strengthen the role of the LEI and vLEI as core components of digital public
infrastructure and trusted global systems.
Driving Real-World Impact Through Open Innovation
Supported by this regulatory momentum, GLEIF envisions a future where secure,
interoperable, and decentralized digital identity systems become foundational
across industries. This transformation promises to reshape how identity and trust
are managed in both traditional and digital ecosystems.
To bring this vision to life, GLEIF is working to promote industry collaboration to
drive broader voluntary adoption of the LEI and vLEI, advocate for global
interoperability and accessibility, and increase the underlying data quality.
Collaboration for Innovation
By fostering cooperation among industry players, GLEIF is driving innovation
while staying true to its non-for-profit mission to deliver a ‘broad public good’. It
recognizes that building a new global ecosystem for organizational digital identity
is a collective endeavor – one that requires cross-sector collaboration, innovation,
and shared vision.

6. Reflecting this commitment, it launched the inaugural vLEI Hackathon in July
2025 to foster open innovation and accelerate real-world adoption of the vLEI.
The hackathon is a global innovation challenge inviting developers,
entrepreneurs, and policy thinkers to create transformative applications using the
vLEI, with participants exploring its potential to revolutionize identity
verification and trust across key sectors, including finance, digital assets, and
global supply chains. This initiative was made possible through collaboration with a diverse network of
leading partners, including Affinidi, Cardano Foundation, Chainlink, EPA Asia,
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Giesecke+Devrient, Hong Kong PKI
Forum, ICC Digital Standards Initiative, Key State Capital, SWIFT, Vayana, and
the Verifiable.Trade Foundation, among others.
Through the vLEI Hackathon, GLEIF is not only advancing the use of verifiable
digital identity – it is also empowering a global community to shape the future of
trust, interoperability, and compliance in the digital age. This is complemented
by initiatives such as the GLEIF Partners Program, which brings together leading
key stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of the LEI and vLEI.
Promoting Global Interoperability and Accessibility
While interoperability is often viewed as a purely technical issue, GLEIF sees it as
a significant hurdle preventing equitable access. The organization firmly believes
that every entity – regardless of size or geographic location – deserves a secure
place in the global economy.
This is why GLEIF is helping to build a digital trust infrastructure that is both
technically robust and socially inclusive. A cornerstone of GLEIF’s approach is
the promotion of open standards, designed to foster market inclusivity and
prevent monopolization. By enabling broad industry participation and

7. collaboration, GLEIF maintains a level playing field and safeguards the LEI
ecosystem as a global public good.
This commitment to inclusivity drives GLEIF’s efforts to ensure that the LEI and
vLEI are accessible to all organizations, particularly micro, small, and
medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and non-profit entities. An example of this
mission in action is GLEIF’s collaboration with public and private sector
stakeholders to reduce barriers to formal financial services and enhance market
participation through verifiable organizational identity.
GLEIF is also working to increase ‘on-the-ground’ engagement and collaboration
in regions where the LEI is currently under-represented, bringing it closer to the
markets it serves and enabling local businesses to have better access to GLEIF’s
expertise and knowledge.
Enhancing Data Quality
A high-quality data ecosystem is a driver of change and innovation that enables
organizations to identify and seize new opportunities. At the same time, low data
quality can lead to inefficiencies and exposure to regulatory and reputational
risks.
Put simply, the credibility of the Global LEI System can only be sustained
through a deep commitment to data quality. Promoting harmonized data
standards and ensuring open access to trusted data brings powerful benefits to
businesses of all sizes. These benefits extend from the largest corporates to small
and medium enterprises (SMEs). Hardwiring verifiable organizational identity
into every business relationship through high-quality data helps address
fragmentation and inconsistencies across borders. These issues have traditionally
inhibited global trade and economic growth. High-quality data unlocks
transformative new opportunities.

8. A Future Built on Trust
The digital revolution has created unparalleled opportunities and incentives for
businesses to trust and be trusted.
The ultimate goal for GLEIF is a future in which every business possesses a
verifiable and trusted global identity. This would embed trust into every
transaction and relationship, reducing complexity and cost while increasing
transparency and accountability across industries.
Such a future holds the potential to lay the foundation for a more secure,
inclusive, and efficient global digital economy, easing international trade,
accelerating economic development, fueling innovation, and harmonizing
identity-related regulation. This can help to address a range of systemic global
challenges – including financial fraud, corporate opacity, financial exclusion,
friction in cross-border capital flows, environmental compliance burdens, and
threats such as money laundering and terrorist financing.

9. 5 Key Takeaways from Alexandre Kech’s Cover Story:
1.​Alexandre Kech Brings Deep Expertise Across Traditional and Digital
Finance
2.​GLEIF Is a Global Trust Anchor for Organizational Identity
3.​The vLEI Extends Trust into the Digital Age
4.​GLEIF Champions Open Innovation and Inclusive Infrastructure
5.​A Vision for a Secure, Interoperable, and Inclusive Digital Economy