Business Registry Data

What is Business Registry data?

Business registry data includes the company name and address, date of incorporation, previous names if any, alternate names if any, controlling or parent company if applicable, and key financial information.

Where does the data come from?

Most of the data comes from government registries. Government regulations dictate that companies must publish their business and financial information in the public domain. 

What types of attributes should I expect when working with Business Registry data?  

Typically, business registry attributes include business ID numbers, the type of business operations, public or private type of companies, and date of registration or incorporation. They also include contact information, acquisition history if any, number of employees, rate of employee turnover, and most recent statutory filings. The company’s active status and any change in status are part of the attributes. Other data held by the company, such as trademarks, is also available.  

How should I test the quality of the data?       

Companies must update any change in their information, especially financial status changes, to avoid any fines from the government. They also need to ensure that their contact information is updated regularly for continued customer engagement. 

Most government bodies and inter-governmental agencies also collect and present good-quality and up-to-date information about companies. 

To test the quality of the data:

• Ensure that the vendor and its sources are trusted.
• Verify that the databases are updated frequently.
• When working with data aggregators it is important that they are aware of the update frequency of the government agency databases and the potential lag time before the data reaches them.

Besides ensuring that the data is trusted and up-to-date, you must confirm that it is relevant to your requirements. For example, B2B marketers need slightly different company information than credit lenders.

You can also check with your vendor if their data is enriched with relevant data such as market data.

Who uses this type of data?

Typically, small and medium-sized businesses use this data for due diligence, compliance audits, and for KYC (know your customer). They also use it to power analytics and enrich other B2B data. For example, B2B lenders can improve their risk analysis by enriching business registry data with credit rating data of the business owners. 

Business registry data helps with investment and risk assessment for critical decisions. Fraud and financial crime investigators leverage this type of data to help them flag fraudulent activity. 

Companies, media publications, non-profit organizations, government bodies, and inter-governmental agencies use business registry data for analysis of the business population and its demographics.

You can use this data to categorize prospective client companies based on industry, financial status, or other criteria relevant to your specific use case. Analyzing and comparing companies based on the registry information can help you make more informed decisions.

What are the common challenges when buying Business Registry data? 

Business registry data is used for KYC and risk analysis. The main challenge is ensuring the data is up-to-date. As this data is used for a variety of objectives, you also need to ascertain that it is relevant to your requirements. 

Some of the common challenges that arise when buying business registry data include source credibility, compliance, and data timeliness. 

• Source credibility: The biggest challenge when buying business registry data is vetting its sources. Verify with all your prospective vendors that their data is regularly tested for quality and their sources are trusted. 
• Compliance: Business registry data may contain personally identifiable information, and you need to ensure that the vendor complies with data privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Data protection and privacy regulations differ across the globe, and the data must be compliant with the laws of the region in which you want to operate.
• Data timeliness: Business registry data changes over time as companies update their address or status. When making risk analysis decisions (or any other important decisions) using this data,  it is essential that it is up-to-date. 

Thorough research and evaluation of business registry data vendors will help you overcome these challenges and choose the right ones.

What are similar data types to Business Registry data? 

You can find a variety of examples of B2B and company data in the Explorium Data Catalog

Sign-up for Explorium’s free-trial to access the data available on the platform.     

What are the most common use cases of Business Registry data?    

The most common use cases for business registry data are KYC and risk analysis. Some key use cases are listed below.

• Due Diligence: Business registry data is used in the review process of companies before entering into proposed business transactions.
• KYC and risk analysis: The “Know Your Customer” (KYC) process verifies a company’s identity and evaluates the risks in establishing a business relationship with it. Businesses and financial services institutions use this data to learn more about their prospects and to avoid potential risks in conducting business with them.
• Identity resolution: Businesses and financial services institutions use this data to get insights into the customers, build harmonized B2B customers profiles, and deliver personalized omnichannel customer communication.
• Fraud prevention: The fraud prevention process evaluates and avoids business relationships and transactions that could potentially lead to a loss of money or brand image. Businesses use this data to help them validate the identities of prospects prior to engaging in transactions with them.
• B2B Fraud: Risks of frauds in B2B payments interrupt the flow of business and affect reputations. Identifying and preventing fraud is becoming increasingly difficult due to the sophisticated techniques fraudsters use. Machine learning technology leverages data patterns to detect possible fraud risks before they can happen.   
• Supplier Risk: Modern supply chains span the globe with services and sources managed across several partners in different jurisdictions. Companies are increasingly using third-party suppliers in executing key strategic imperatives. While third-party operations are increasing, they are also becoming more complex. Companies need to identify supplier risks and upgrade their risk management framework to avoid potential losses.