The LEI would provide a unique identification tag for every financial services entity and perhaps extend to the financial instruments they issue.

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Users could pay for services at the participating merchants by tapping the tag on a piece of hardware (called a Blinger) at the point of sale.

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The continent is lagging in the all-important services sector, though Germany has managed to shake its "Old Europe" tag a bit to become a bigger exporter in the past year.

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