Finema, a Bangkok-based digital identity solutions provider, has become the first Southeast Asian company to achieve Qualified vLEI Issuer (QVI) status from the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF). The designation enables Finema to issue verifiable Legal Entity Identifiers (vLEIs), enhancing trust and transparency in cross-border trade and finance—particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region.
The achievement aligns with recent ISO standardization efforts to establish vLEIs as a globally recognized framework for organizational identity verification. The system leverages advanced protocols—ACDC for credential chaining, KERI for key management, and CESR for secure serialization—to support decentralized and tamper-evident verification.
At the core of the vLEI ecosystem is GLEIF, which serves as the global “Root of Trust.” Its vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework, modeled after the Trust over IP Metamodel, defines operational and compliance standards for QVIs like Finema, ensuring integrity and interoperability across jurisdictions.
“We are committed to revolutionizing compliance and trust in the cross-border trade finance system,” said Pakorn Leesakul, CEO of Finema. “With our vLEI solution, organizations are empowered with secure, verifiable digital credentials to streamline regulatory processes and foster transparency.”
The qualification marks a major step in Finema’s evolution. Since its founding in 2017, the company has advanced biometric and decentralized identity technologies, including liveness detection partnerships and its Enterprise Decentralized Identity Platform. By integrating vLEIs, the platform now allows SMEs to present verified financial and legal histories digitally, helping them overcome the “trust deficit” that often limits international business opportunities.
“Sweeping digitalization across the global economy provides unprecedented opportunities and incentives to transform the underlying systems organizations use to trust and be trusted,” said Alexandre Kech, CEO of GLEIF. “Welcoming Finema as the latest QVI marks another significant expansion of the vLEI ecosystem and a step towards our goal of enabling businesses to transact remotely and across borders with complete confidence.”
The vLEI framework supports two types of credentials: Official Organization Role (OOR) credentials—verified against public registries, and Engagement Context Role (ECR) credentials—defined by the organization for internal or sector-specific purposes. Together, these create a digitally verifiable chain of trust anchored by GLEIF, enabling automated Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) processes, document signing, and secure onboarding workflows.
The development also reflects GLEIF’s broader regional strategy to expand vLEI adoption across Asia, bringing transparency to historically opaque markets and empowering SMEs through globally interoperable digital identity standards.
Sources: GLEIF, FinancialIT
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April 7, 2025 – by the ID Tech Editorial Team
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