Company and corporate registry data
Company data, who exists, who owns whom, who is connected, underpins KYC, credit, procurement and B2B. This guide covers corporate registry data and how to source it across jurisdictions.
Available across the EU. DataSupplier sources and delivers this data in all 27 European Union countries — including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland — and across the EEA, in the format and cadence you need.
Why company data matters
Reliable information about legal entities and their relationships is foundational for onboarding, risk, compliance and B2B targeting. The challenge is that it is scattered across national registries with different formats and access rules.
What it contains
- Entity basics: name, status, registration, addresses.
- Ownership: shareholders and beneficial ownership.
- Filings: accounts and statutory documents.
- Identifiers: national numbers and the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).
Identifiers and linking
The lack of a single global company identifier makes linking hard. The LEI helps for financial entities, but matching across registries still relies on entity resolution.
Common use cases
KYC and AML onboarding, credit and counterparty risk, supplier due diligence, B2B prospecting, and beneficial-ownership and sanctions screening.
Sourcing considerations
Coverage, freshness and access terms vary by jurisdiction, and some registries restrict bulk or commercial reuse. Beneficial-ownership access has tightened in places. Provenance and licensing must be confirmed.
In a managed model
A managed partner can source across registries, resolve entities and deliver a unified company dataset with documented provenance, while keeping suppliers confidential.
The identifier problem
Company data’s defining challenge is the absence of a single global identifier. The same entity appears under different names, numbers and addresses across national registers, so matching, entity resolution, is central to building a usable dataset. The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) helps for financial entities, and national registration numbers anchor within a country, but cross-border matching still relies on careful resolution. Get it wrong and you merge distinct companies or split one into several.
Coverage, freshness and beneficial ownership
Registry coverage, depth and access vary widely by jurisdiction, and some data, beneficial ownership in particular, has seen access tightened. Filings also age, so freshness matters for risk and onboarding use. Confirming what each register permits for commercial reuse, and documenting provenance, is essential where the data feeds KYC, credit or due-diligence decisions.
- Company data is scattered across national registries with varied access.
- No single global identifier exists; the LEI helps but matching is still needed.
- Used for KYC, risk, due diligence and B2B.
- Confirm coverage, freshness and reuse terms per jurisdiction.
Sources & further reading
- GLEIF: Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).
- National business registers and the EU Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS).
- EUR-Lex: anti-money-laundering and beneficial-ownership rules.
- OpenCorporates and registry data references.
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