However, so far only the United States has taken any action to require a global identifier.

FORBES: "Global" Bank Regulation -- Stranded in the U.S.?

The current push for a unique global identifier for each legal entity was sparked by the financial crisis in 2008 when firms and regulators had a hard time tracing the transactions among key players such as Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG and the portfolios of mortgage-backed securities.

FORBES: LEI -- 20 Characters In Search Of Authority

The CFTC for a time appeared to be using the same model for an identifier it required for swaps, but then backed away and said it would wait for the global development of an LEI and call its identifier the CFTC Interim Compliant Identifier (CICI) a sort of LEI Lite which will convert or yield to the LEI standard once it is adopted.

FORBES: Financial LEI's -- Required To Reduce Operational Risk

Without practical, hands-on review of how we intend to use the identifier for the business of making global decisions on the riskiness of trades, positions, clearing arrangements, net stable funding ratios and counterparty exposures the good data efforts led by the US will quickly become irrelevant.

FORBES: "Global" Bank Regulation -- Stranded in the U.S.?