On 15 October 2024, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) issued an opinion regarding the European Commission’s (EC) rejection of the draft Implementing Technical Standards (the Draft ITS) for the register of information under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2554, DORA). DORA requires financial entities to maintain and regularly update a register of information covering all contractual agreements with ICT third-party service providers. This register is crucial for managing third-party ICT risks and will enable the EU competent authorities and ESAs to supervise compliance with DORA and identify critical ICT service providers subject the DORA’s oversight framework. The Draft ITS contains standard templates for this register.
The EC rejected the Draft ITS on 3 September 2024 due to concerns over the mandatory use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) for identifying ICT third-party service providers. Among other things, the EC wants to see the ability for entities to use either the LEI or the European Unique Identifier (EUID), arguing that the EUID is already widely used by EU companies. In their response, the ESAs expressed concerns that incorporating the EUID alongside the LEI would add unnecessary complexity, increase implementation costs, and introduce potential data quality issues. The ESAs emphasised that the LEI’s widespread international adoption and robust data validation capabilities make it the more suitable option for financial reporting. As a result, the ESAs favour the exclusive use of the LEI.
In the end, the ESAs suggest keeping the LEI as the main identifier but recognise that if the EUID is adopted, additional changes to the Draft ITS would be necessary for a seamless implementation. These changes would involve adding new data fields and prioritising the LEI in cases where both identifiers are present.
Finally, financial entities are encouraged to ramp up their implementation efforts to be ready to submit their registers in the first half of 2025.
The ESA’s opinion is available via this link.