Real world identifiers¶
Overview¶
To create a link between statements, and the real-world organisations and people they relate to, statements may include a range of identifying information. We use a common Identifier object with the following properties:
schemeshould be a value from a codelist of known identifier sources. Separate codelists exist for entities and persons. See below.idshould be the value assigned to the relevant entity or person in that scheme.urimay be used to provide a canonical URI for the entity or person within the scheme.schemeNameshould be the name of the list, registry or ID system.
A good-quality Identifier will contain scheme and id values which will uniquely identify an entity or person. Where these are not available, schemeName can be used to refer to the registration system in which the person or entity is known to be represented. When publishing an Identifier object, a value for either scheme or schemeName MUST be present.
Other identifiable objects¶
Links to identifiable objects, artefacts and institutions are also made elsewhere in the schema. For example, tradable company securities can be referenced with an identifier. More information on such elements of the schema is provided below.
Entity Identifiers¶
The values for scheme within an Entity Statement Identifier should be drawn from the http://org-id.guide codelist. This contains details of hundreds of company registers and other identifier sources.
Where the publisher is providing an internal identifier, the publisher should either:
Publish their full list of internal identifiers, and register this list with the http://org-id.guide codelist; or
Use MISC-{Publisher_Name} as the scheme
Person Identifiers¶
System Identifiers¶
If the source system has assigned a unique identifier to individual persons, and this identifier can be published, then this should be included with the scheme ‘MISC-{Publisher Name}’.
For example, a beneficial ownership reporting system may maintain a database table of ‘person’ records, each with its identifier as a primary key. So that users can recognise references to the same person mentioned in separate statements, this identifier should be included in the published data, either in raw form, or modified to ensure a unique value.
PASSPORT¶
Passport numbers should follow the format of the identifier (second) line in a machine-readable passport (see Appendix B to Part 4 of ICAO Doc 9303) including at least the document number.
Parsers should be able to extract the document number from the first 9 characters, and to access any subsequent information supplied according to the ICAO format.
TAXID¶
Country taxpayer identification systems vary. Where specific guidance on including numbers from a particular jurisdiction is required, this may be included here in future.
IDCARD¶
Country ID card systems vary. Where specific guidance on including numbers from a particular jurisdiction is required, this may be included here in future.
Multiple Identifiers for entities or people¶
A source system might hold the following identifying information for a single company:
A registered company number; and
A VAT number;
In this case, two entries can be created in the Entity statement’s identifiers array:
[
{
"scheme":"GB-COH",
"id":"012345678"
},
{
"scheme":"GB-VAT",
"id":"65251235"
}
]
Person Statements may also hold an array of Identifiers.
Other identifiers¶
Market Identifier Codes (MICs)¶
See this company information published as BODS JSON for an example of a valid use of MICs.
When a company is listed, a publicListing object can be published within the Entity Statement, containing information about its securities and where they are traded. An array of securitiesListings MAY be built and, for each security and market on which it is traded, the identifier for the market MAY be published.
Two properties SHOULD be used to accurately identify where a security is traded: the operatingMarketIdentifierCode of the operating market plus a marketIdentifierCode. The marketIdentifierCode will be the same as the operatingMarketIdentifierCode if the security is traded on a main exchange. However the marketIdentifierCode will differ where a security is traded on a segment of an exchange.
MICs are standardised, issued and maintained by SWIFT as ISO 10383. The specification of operatingMarketIdentifierCode and marketIdentifierCode is part of the ISO standard.
Tradable security identifiers¶
See this company information published as BODS JSON for an example use of securities identifiers.
Where a securitiesListing is supplied (see above), it MUST include a ticker value. This will allow trades of that security to be tracked on the identified market. However, securities can be traded on several exchanges and therefore a globally unique identifier for the security SHOULD also be supplied where possible. Supported identifier schemes for securities are listed on the schema reference page. The identifier scheme and the security’s ID under that scheme should be published as idScheme and id respectively.