Legal entity verification by name, LEI or CIK

What it is for

Before paying a deposit, onboarding a supplier or signing with a counterparty, a buyer needs to know the company exists as a registered legal entity, where it is registered, what its legal and headquarters addresses are, and whether its registration is current. This answers that from the Global LEI Index and SEC EDGAR, with each figure traced to its registry record.

Procurement and accounts-payable staff checking a new supplier, compliance analysts doing know-your-business checks, and agents acting for them.

What happens to a request

The lookup runs immediately against GLEIF's public LEI API and, when you give a CIK or ticker, SEC EDGAR's submissions API. The answer lists every matching LEI record with its registration status and the registry it came from. Nothing is inferred: a company with no LEI and no SEC filings returns no match, and the answer says so.

What you get

A JSON answer with each matching LEI record (LEI, legal name, jurisdiction, legal and headquarters addresses, registration status and next renewal date, the registration authority and its local identifier) and, where requested, the EDGAR registration (CIK, name, SIC code, state of incorporation, addresses, the ten most recent filings).

Scope and limits

Worldwide for LEI records (any jurisdiction that issues LEIs); United States for SEC EDGAR registrations.

• Only companies that hold an LEI or file with the SEC can be found; many small private companies hold neither.
• Beneficial ownership, credit, litigation and sanctions status are not returned (sanctions screening is a separate operation).
• Name matching is the registry's own; ambiguous names return several candidates for you to choose from.

What you can specify

• legal name or part of it
• LEI (20 characters)
• SEC CIK or stock ticker
• country or jurisdiction to narrow a name search

Operations

GET /entity-verification/op/lookup

LEI records matching a name or an LEI, and the SEC EDGAR registration for a CIK or ticker, each with its registry source and retrieval time.

Price: this operation is paid per call with x402; payment is not enabled on this deployment, so calls answer that it is unavailable.

Example answer:

{
  "query": {
    "name": "Apple Inc.",
    "ticker": "AAPL"
  },
  "lei_records": [
    {
      "lei": "HWUPKR0MPOU8FGXBT394",
      "legal_name": "Apple Inc.",
      "jurisdiction": "US-CA",
      "entity_status": "ACTIVE",
      "registration_status": "ISSUED",
      "next_renewal": "2027-03-08",
      "legal_address": "C/O C T Corporation System, 330 N. Brand Blvd, Suite 700, Glendale, US-CA, 91203, US",
      "headquarters_address": "One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, US-CA, 95014, US",
      "registration_authority": "RA000598",
      "registration_authority_entity_id": "806592"
    }
  ],
  "edgar": {
    "cik": "0000320193",
    "name": "Apple Inc.",
    "sic": "3571",
    "sic_description": "Electronic Computers",
    "state_of_incorporation": "CA",
    "business_address": "ONE APPLE PARK WAY, CUPERTINO, CA, 95014",
    "recent_filings": [
      {
        "form": "10-K",
        "filed": "2026-11-03",
        "accession": "0000320193-26-000026"
      }
    ]
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "registry": "GLEIF",
      "url": "https://api.gleif.org/api/v1/lei-records/HWUPKR0MPOU8FGXBT394",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-11-03T19:05:00Z"
    },
    {
      "registry": "SEC EDGAR",
      "url": "https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000320193.json",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-11-03T19:05:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "not_found": []
}

Sources: GLEIF LEI API (CC0 1.0); SEC EDGAR submissions API (US government work, public). Limits: at most 10 LEI records per answer; EDGAR only for a CIK or a ticker in SEC's company list.

Next step

Call GET /entity-verification/op/lookup with name, lei, cik or ticker. It is paid per call over x402; the price and network are in the 402 answer. Or describe a verification you need that this does not cover.

Or send JSON to POST /entity-verification/requests (schema: /entity-verification/schema.json). Example:

{
  "action": "verify",
  "need": "Confirm that the supplier Siemens Energy AG is a registered company and get its registered address before we pay a deposit.",
  "specifications": {
    "legal_name": "Siemens Energy AG",
    "jurisdiction": "DE",
    "checks_needed": [
      "registered address",
      "registration status"
    ]
  }
}

Sources for statements on this page

• GLEIF publishes LEI reference data under the CC0 licence through a public API. www.gleif.org
• SEC EDGAR submissions data is public and requires a declared User-Agent. www.sec.gov