Open, international Business Identifiers

Company identifiers issued by government agencies, when a legal entity was formed, are Authoritative Legal Entity Identifiers (ALEI). They identify a company in law in the jurisdiction in which the company was formed. Read more about Why we use authoritative identifiers for Supplier Identity Verification?

Once we have verified the legal identity of your supplier, we format the supplier’s ALEI as an ISO 25500-compliant International Business Identifier (IBID), or where this not possible due to Business Register restrictions, to an ISO 8000-116-compliant International Business Registration Number (IBRN).

The difference between the two identifiers is subtle but important.

The International Business Registration Number (IBRN) is a globally unique, business identifier that enables search and validation of a company’s government-issued registration number with an ISO 8000-116 prefix in front that confirms the jurisdiction in which the company was formed. It cannot however enable company identity to be digitally verified, for example via webscraping or AI, because two essential pieces of data are missing: the company’s full legal name and its date of formation (origin).

In an online environment where fraud and impersonation are increasing, verified identity matters. The most common source of corporate fraud is identity theft, where a bad actor registers a business under the same name as a known business but in a different jurisdiction (and on a different date). Knowing the International Business Identifier (IBID) of the legitimate business protects against this type of fraud.

An IBID is a globally unique business identifier that can be digitally verified in real time by your trading partners via API. No other business in the world has the same IBID as yours.

The IBID for a legal entity uses ISO 25500-3 formatting that brings together in one string the three key data points essential in identity verification: government-issued registration number (with an ISO 8000-116 prefix in front), legal name, and date of formation. These three pieces of data are all created, maintained, and publicly verifiable in the government register (the ISO 8000-116 prefix provides a code for the government jurisdiction and register) where the entity was formed. Therefore an IBID does not require a third-party license.

For example: A corporation entered under the registration number 3031657 and legal name Code Management Association into the business entity register of the United States’ state of Delaware on 1999-04-20 has an IBID of :

ISO.IBID:US-DE.BER:3031657|Code Management Association|19990420

How do I use my IBID? Using your IBID is simple. Include it alongside your existing business details in:

• Email signature lines
• Business letterhead
• Website footer
• Legal contracts (your legal team may reference the suggested contract clause)
• Terms of Business
• Invoicing templates

Because of the three essential data elements found in your IBID, it supports emerging regulatory requirements for business transparency.