Confirm the entity behind a GIIN or an LEI
A GIIN on a W-8BEN-E and an LEI on an onboarding pack are both self-supplied. TIN Comply checks them against the source registries — the IRS FATCA FFI list and GLEIF — and returns the registered legal name, jurisdiction and status, so you can see whether the counterparty is who the paperwork says.
Runs alongside IRS TIN matching and sanctions screening in the same submission.
GENECAR — Societe Generale de Courtage d'Assurances et de Reassurance
SAS, société par actions simplifiée
France
17 Cours Valmy, Tour Societe Generale, 92800 Puteaux
Part of every TIN Comply plan from $20/mo — not a separate purchase. See pricing
Both identifiers arrive as claims, not facts
A GIIN comes off a W-8BEN-E. An LEI comes off an onboarding form. In both cases the counterparty is telling you who they are, and in both cases there's an authoritative public registry that either agrees or doesn't. Checking takes a second; not checking surfaces years later.
Withholding exposure
An entity that isn't actually on the FFI list may not hold the status its documentation claims — which can change your withholding position on payments to it.
Wrong entity, right name
Large groups run dozens of legally distinct entities under near-identical names. The LEI is what tells you which one you're actually contracting with.
Lapsed registrations
Registrations expire. An identifier that validated at onboarding two years ago may be cancelled or unrenewed today, and nothing announces it.
Both are supplementary, and we'd rather be direct about that. IRS TIN matching remains the authoritative check for 1099 reporting, and sanctions screening is what determines whether a counterparty can be paid. GIIN and LEI add identity and registration context alongside those — they don't replace either, and they're reported separately so the distinction stays clear.
Is this institution actually registered?
A Global Intermediary Identification Number is what the IRS issues to a foreign financial
institution that has registered under FATCA. It looks like
XXXXXX.XXXXX.XX.XXX and it either appears on the IRS FFI Registry or it doesn't.
- Checked against the IRS FATCA FFI Registry — the published list, not a derived copy.
- Returns registered company name and country, so you can compare against the W-8BEN-E.
- Explains a miss — transposed characters, an expired or cancelled GIIN, or an entity that never completed registration.
- Tells you what to ask for — the vendor's FATCA registration confirmation letter.
A missing GIIN may affect FATCA withholding obligations. That's a determination for your tax advisor — the lookup tells you what the registry says, not what to withhold.
Societe Generale — Branch
Canada
The entity is registered and active on the IRS FFI list, and compliant for FATCA reporting purposes.
Confirm the name here matches the entity on the W-8BEN-E. Retain the result for your audit file.
A typo in the 20-character code, a lapsed LEI that hasn't been renewed, or an entity with no registered LEI at all.
Ask the counterparty to confirm the LEI from their registration, and check it's exactly 20 alphanumeric characters.
Which entity in the group is this, exactly?
An LEI is a 20-character code identifying one legally distinct entity in the Global LEI System. Where a company name is ambiguous across a group, the LEI isn't.
- Checked against GLEIF, the Global LEI Foundation's public registry.
- Returns registered legal name — the full one, not the trading name.
- Legal form and jurisdiction, which is what distinguishes sibling entities in a group.
- Registered address and status, so a lapsed registration is visible rather than assumed current.
The status field is the one worth watching. LEIs require periodic renewal, so a code that validated cleanly at onboarding can quietly lapse — and an expired LEI is a reporting problem long before anyone notices it in a contract.
Different team, same submission
These identifiers usually matter to compliance, treasury and KYC rather than to AP — but they run in the same call and land in the same audit trail.
FATCA reporting
Confirm a foreign financial institution's registration before relying on the status it claims on a W-8BEN-E.
KYC & onboarding
Pin down exactly which legal entity you're contracting with, in a group where names repeat.
Periodic refresh
Re-validate identifiers on a cycle, because registrations lapse without notifying anyone.
Questions about GIIN and LEI validation
What is a GIIN?
A Global Intermediary Identification Number — the identifier the IRS issues to a foreign
financial institution that has registered under FATCA. It's formatted
XXXXXX.XXXXX.XX.XXX and appears on the IRS Foreign Financial Institution
Registry, which is what a GIIN validation checks against.
Why validate a GIIN at all?
Because a GIIN supplied on a W-8BEN-E is a self-certification. If the number isn't actually on the IRS FFI list, the entity may not be registered, may have been deregistered, or the number may simply be mistyped.
A missing or invalid GIIN can affect FATCA withholding obligations — a determination to make with your tax advisor rather than from a lookup alone.
What does a GIIN validation return?
On a hit: the registered company name and country as listed on the FFI Registry, so you can compare them against the entity name on the W-8BEN-E.
On a miss: the likely cause — transposed characters, an expired or cancelled registration, or an entity that hasn't completed FATCA registration — plus what to request from the vendor.
What is an LEI?
A Legal Entity Identifier: a 20-character alphanumeric code identifying a legally distinct entity participating in financial transactions. It's issued under the Global LEI System and maintained by GLEIF, and is widely used for regulatory reporting and counterparty identification.
What does an LEI validation return?
The registered legal name, legal form, jurisdiction, registered address, and the registration status such as Active — so you can confirm the counterparty is the entity you think it is, and that the registration hasn't lapsed.
Do these affect TIN matching or sanctions status?
No — both are supplementary, and the product says so on the result itself. IRS TIN matching remains authoritative for 1099 reporting, and sanctions screening determines whether a counterparty can be paid.
GIIN and LEI add entity identity and registration context alongside those. Keeping the distinction visible matters more than making the result look decisive.
The rest of the vendor validation stack
Check the identifier, not just the paperwork
Validate GIINs against the IRS FFI Registry and LEIs against GLEIF — in the same submission as TIN matching and sanctions screening, with the result kept in your audit trail.
Supplementary to TIN matching and sanctions — reported separately, always.