Corporate identifiers, DUNS numbers, LEIs

& all that

Now over 43 million companies in 50 jurisdictions

Including 25 US states

What is a company and why should we care how we identify it?

http

://w

ww

.flic

kr.c

om/p

hoto

s/87

3711

41@

N00

/281

8583

86/s

izes

/z/in

/pho

tost

ream

/

Is it like this?

http

://e

n.w

ikip

edia

.org

/wik

i/File

:Leh

man

_Bro

ther

s_Ti

mes

_Squ

are_

by_D

avid

_Sha

nkbo

ne.jp

g

Or like this?

http

://e

n.w

ikip

edia

.org

/wik

i/File

:Leh

man

_Bro

ther

s_Ti

mes

_Squ

are_

by_D

avid

_Sha

nkbo

ne.jp

g

Or like this?

Because identity matters

http

://w

ww

.flic

kr.c

om/p

hoto

s/m

ike5

2ad/

5154

0689

71/s

izes

/z/

You need to know who you’re doing business with

And the identifier needs to be non-proprietary, reusable, transparent, and useful

FAIL!

There are alternatives

Financial Stability Board global LEIs

OpenCorporates URIs

Using existing identifiers... intelligently

A new identifier system... if it’s done right