Entity verification is an essential part of RegTech solutions, especially for Know Your Business (KYB) and due diligence processes. This guide outlines a step-by-step approach for using OpenCorporates data to overcome common entity verification challenges. It’s for anyone who’s ever wondered “what problems with entity verification does OpenCorporates solve, and how does it solve them?”
Step 1: Know your entity verification challenges
Before integrating OpenCorporates data, it is important to understand the core entity verification challenges you’re facing, such as:
- Authenticating legal entities: Verifying that a company or individual is legitimate is crucial in preventing financial crime.
- Accessing reliable data: Accessing trusted corporate data from numerous jurisdictions can be cumbersome and unreliable when data sources are inconsistent.
- Reducing manual effort: Entity verification often involves repetitive, manual processes that can delay onboarding.
To solve these challenges, you need legal entity data, not vague “business data”. If the data doesn’t clearly map to a specific legal entity incorporated in a jurisdiction, then you will end up with very significant data quality issues.
OpenCorporates provides a centralised, reliable, and automated solution for accessing legal entity data globally.
Step 2: Gain access to the OpenCorporates API
To start using OpenCorporates data, follow these steps to gain access to the API:
- Sign up for API access: Visit OpenCorporates API Access Page and sign up for API access. You may need to choose a suitable plan based on your data requirements and usage.
- Review API documentation: Familiarise yourself with the API Documentation to understand the available endpoints and parameters.
Step 3: Integrate OpenCorporates data
OpenCorporates offers an API that can be integrated directly into your RegTech solution. Benefits of setting up this integration include:
- Real-time access to our database: Use OpenCorporates’ API to access our company records in real-time. This ensures that you always have the latest information we have available.
- Global coverage: Integrate the API to access data from over 140 jurisdictions. This helps verify legal entities no matter where they are incorporated, making it easy to navigate complex international requirements.
- Official legal-entity data: OpenCorporates provides data as found at the registry source, with standardised Company Name, Incorporation Country, Incorporation Date. We also make it traceable directly back to the source, reducing risk, complexity, and barriers to automation at scale.
- Testable API requests: Use tools like Postman to test API requests and verify that you are receiving the correct data. The API documentation provides example requests and responses that can help in testing.
- Error handling: Implement error handling for common issues such as rate limits, invalid API keys, or unavailable data. This will ensure your integration is robust and reliable. More information regarding error handling can be found here.
Step 4: Automate your data collection
One of the major benefits of OpenCorporates is the ability to automate the time-consuming data collection steps in KYB. Instead of manually accessing multiple registries, use the API to pull reliable corporate information instantly.
OpenCorporates collects data exclusively from official company registries, ensuring that only verified information is used in entity verification. This means you can use OpenCorporates data to replace manual registry searches, reducing the time and effort needed to onboard customers.
- Use API endpoints: The API offers multiple endpoints, including search and fetching detailed company information. Use these endpoints to efficiently collect the data needed for entity verification. A full list of these endpoints and examples of how to use them can be found here. Remember, authentication is through an API token in the query parameters. This token is available from your OpenCorporates account page. For example:
*Please keep your API key safe.
Step 5: Ensure data provenance
Transparency is a key element in ensuring compliance. OpenCorporates data includes provenance for each entity in the dataset—providing a clear audit trail of when and where the information was collected.
- Data provenance: Every entity includes its source, which allows you to provide audit-ready verification trails. This helps compliance teams justify decisions based on official records. The provenance object consists of the following:
- Reliable decision-making: You can confidently rely on the provided data, knowing that it is collected from trusted sources. This transparency can also improve relationships with clients, who require assurance of regulatory compliance.
Step 6: Use multi-jurisdictional data for risk identification
One of the most significant challenges in entity verification is dealing with inconsistencies in how companies are registered and referred to across different jurisdictions. OpenCorporates addresses this by providing unified, global data.
- Unique entity identification: Use OpenCorporates data to uniquely identify companies across multiple data sources. This helps in reducing errors related to inconsistent naming conventions or registration details. Our database also contains Additional Identifiers for companies, including LEIs, TINs, and EINs, all essential for entity resolution.
- Cross-referencing for risk management: Once an entity is identified, cross-reference OpenCorporates data with other risk databases, such as Open Sanctions. This enables a more effective risk management process by providing a consistent foundation.
Step 7: Scale as needed
As your verification needs grow, OpenCorporates’ flexible API allows you to easily scale up the amount of data accessed.
- Adaptable data use: Increase the usage of company data based on demand. This helps RegTech companies support large-scale KYC operations without worrying about data availability or costs.
- Continuous monitoring: Use the data to continuously monitor companies for any changes, allowing for ongoing verification and improved risk management.
Summary of best practices
- Automate as much as possible: Use the OpenCorporates API to automate entity verification workflows, reducing manual labour and increasing efficiency.
- Leverage data provenance: Always use the data provenance feature to ensure transparency and compliance during audits or regulatory checks.
- Cross-reference for enhanced risk assessment: Combine OpenCorporates data with other data sources to build a complete view of a company’s risk profile.
- Standardise verification processes: Take advantage of the globally standardised data to create repeatable, scalable processes across jurisdictions.
- Monitor rate limits: Keep track of API rate limits to ensure your integration continues to run smoothly and avoid disruptions in data access.
By integrating OpenCorporates data, you can overcome significant entity verification challenges, such as verifying the legitimacy of companies, accessing multi-jurisdictional data, and reducing manual effort. The data’s transparency, high quality, and flexibility make it a powerful tool for automating KYC processes and making more informed risk-based decisions.
