Setting the Standard: Interoperability, Identity, and Data in a Digital World

Beyond Digitization: The Trusted Identity Imperative for Global Trade

As global trade moves from paper to fully digital ecosystems, the harder problem is no longer digitization. It is interoperability and trust at scale. In this episode of Trust Talks, GLEIF CEO Alexandre Kech is joined by Avanee Gokhale, Head of Industry Insights and Global Head of Trade at Swift and Vice Chair of the ICC Digital Standards Initiative Industry Advisory Board, to examine why fragmented systems, inconsistent standards adoption, and weak identity frameworks continue to slow progress. Drawing on the ICC DSI roadmap, Avanee explains why digitizing a document is not the same as digitizing a process, and why trade only scales when data is machine-readable, verifiable, and reusable across organizations, platforms, and jurisdictions. The conversation centers on portable trust: the idea that if one party has already verified an organization, that trust should be reusable across the ecosystem rather than recreated at every step. Alexandre and Avanee discuss why identity is the bottleneck, how the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) and the verifiable LEI (vLEI) are becoming foundational infrastructure rather than regulatory checkboxes, and what the shift toward agentic AI means for "know your agent." They also cover Swift's work on standards and a shared ledger, the move toward a network of networks, and how to align public- and private-sector incentives. The one thing to remember is that digital trade does not scale through digitization alone. It scales when trust, data, and value move across networks as seamlessly as goods move across borders. Listen now: linktr.ee/TrustTalks

Setting the Standard: Interoperability, Identity, and Data in a Digital World

As traditional and digital asset markets increasingly operate side by side, the question is no longer whether standards matter, but whether the standards we already have can evolve fast enough to keep data connected across systems and jurisdictions. In Episode 11 of Trust Talks, GLEIF CEO Alexandre Kech speaks with Laura Stanley, Director of Entity Data and Symbology at London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Vice Chair of the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) Board. Drawing on a cross-market view of symbology and standards, Laura makes the case that interoperability depends less on new identifiers and more on connecting and evolving the ones already in place. In this episode: - Why standardized identifiers such as the LEI, ISIN, CFI, and SEDOL are the backbone of market infrastructure, beyond regulatory reporting - How the ISIN has stayed fit for purpose for more than 40 years through systematic review and market feedback - Where coverage gaps remain, including loans and digital assets - What LSEG's winning project at GLEIF's Global vLEI Hackathon showed about reducing friction in identity resolution - Why the shift to decentralized finance will be an evolution, not a sudden switch, and what coexistence requires of data standards What's the One Thing? Laura Stanley: "The identifier is more than just a code, and all of the data that comes with it is really important."

Proactive Post-Trade: Data, Digital Channels, and Verifiable Identity on the Road to T+1

Europe's move to T+1 settlement by October 2027 is putting pressure on every link in the post-trade chain. Matching, confirmation, settlement, collateral management, liquidity — all of it needs to move faster, and with far fewer errors.    In this episode, GLEIF CEO Alexandre Kech sits down with Maria Keller, Head of Data, Channels and Digital Operations at Clearstream, part of Deutsche Börse Group, to explore what that shift demands from post-trade data infrastructure — and how Clearstream is responding.    They discuss:  - Why instruction quality is the real bottleneck on the path to straight-through processing  - How AI is enabling clients to interrogate their own post-trade data in natural language  - The role of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) in reducing friction in cross-border settlement  - Clearstream's runner-up recognition at the GLEIF Hackathon for using the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) as a secure login standard  - What "proactive" post-trade operations actually look like in practice    "High-quality data creates trust. And trust is really important if we want to move to the next level of financial markets." — Eva-Maria Keller

Who’s Behind the Smart Contract? Advancing Trust Layers for Tokenized Finance

Who’s behind the smart contract? In this episode of Trust Talks, host Alexandre Kech, CEO of GLEIF, speaks with Thomas A. Mayfield, Head of Decentralized Trust and Identity Solutions at the Cardano Foundation, about why secure and verifiable organizational identity is becoming a foundational layer of trust for tokenized finance. They explore why it is still so difficult to answer a basic question in digital asset markets: who is behind the smart contract and the wallet? The conversation examines how the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) and verifiable LEI (vLEI) can help connect on-chain and off-chain governance, strengthen accountability, support regulatory alignment, and make smart contract execution more trusted and auditable. Alexandre and Thomas also discuss the risks created by anonymous smart contract deployment, the strategic opportunity for institutions that can embed identity into programmable finance, and why interoperability and cross-chain trust will be essential to scaling digital asset markets. Listen to this and all upcoming episodes of Trust Talks on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Subscribe or follow now.

Open Standards for Trust: How Interoperability Drives Adoption in Digital Finance

In this episode of Trust Talks, host Alexandre Kech (CEO, GLEIF) speaks with Pelle Brændgaard (Co-Founder & CEO, Notabene) about why open standards consistently outperform closed networks when scale, adoption, and trust matter most.  They explore how organizational identifiers such as the LEI and vLEI can enable faster, more reliable counterparty verification and help shift compliance from reactive checks to pre-transaction decision-making under frameworks such as FATF Recommendation 16 (the Travel Rule). The conversation also covers how open messaging and verification layers can reduce friction in cross-border and digital-asset payments, and how products like Notabene Flow aim to translate interoperability into real operational workflows for institutions and businesses. Key themes * Why open-loop networks win (payments and the internet as reference cases)  * LEI/vLEI as practical trust anchors for businesses in multi-network ecosystems  * Pre-transaction verification as the operating model for instant settlement  * Interoperability as a measurable adoption lever, not a “nice-to-have.”