Identifiers in Business Information Databases

Searching companies or securities by identifiers can be more efficient than searching by names. Identifiers eliminate problems around spelling variations, abbreviations and various corporate designations.  Also, many identifiers do not change even if a company changes its name. 

Most financial databases have their own proprietary identifiers, but there are also universal identifiers assigned by government agencies or other bodies. 

Gathering data from several different financial databases can be challenging but necessary. There are identifiers that these databases have in common, that can make the transition of combining datasets easier.

Download our Business Identifiers by Database Excel file for a list of identifiers used by various financial database and definitions of identifiers.