Metadata and standards

Metadata defines how data is structured, interpreted, and validated across systems. It is the foundation that enables organizations to exchange and compare information consistently, regardless of jurisdiction or language. For CDQ, metadata is essential to make data sharing possible at scale and across borders.

Because regulatory and business requirements change over time, metadata must evolve dynamically. CDQ maintains a continuously updated metadata repository that captures national and sector-specific data rules, such as address formats, identifier structures, and legal form codes. This ensures that shared and validated data remains semantically correct and compliant across all contexts. By sharing standardized metadata, CDQ enables customers to align their data models and validation rules, making collaboration efficient and legally sound.

In many countries, official company information is available as Open Data, but the lack of a standardized data model or provision method complicates the process of integrating this data. The Data Sharing Community actively collaborates to identify global data requirements and reference data sources, whether Open Data or commercial.

Ensuring data quality is crucial for businesses seeking to maintain compliance with ever-evolving legal, regulatory, and industry standards. In today’s global environment, adhering to dynamic data requirements is a continuous challenge, as these standards frequently change based on national regulations. As regulations vary by country, organizations must track and update their compliance criteria to ensure alignment across all jurisdictions they operate within.

Many countries offer official company information as Open Data; however, the absence of a standardized data model or provision method complicates the process of integrating this data into business operations. The Metadata and Standards initiative within the Data Sharing Community aims to address these challenges by identifying and aggregating global data requirements and reference data sources -- whether Open Data or commercially sourced. Through this collaborative effort, businesses can ensure they have access to accurate, reliable, and standardized data that is critical for compliance and risk mitigation.

By leveraging this structured and standardized metadata, businesses can ensure compliance with complex and diverse regulatory frameworks, improve data quality, and streamline integration across global systems. The Metadata and Standards approach ensures that companies have access to reliable, high-quality reference data, enabling them to stay compliant, reduce risk, and make informed decisions.

Managed metadata types

	Short description
Administrative area metadata	Managed reference data for administrative areas such as regions, provinces, or counties, including their ISO 3166-2 codes and hierarchical relationships.
Bank account metadata	Managed reference data for bank accounts worldwide.
Business identifier metadata	Managed reference data for business identifiers used to uniquely identify legal entities, establishments, and other organization types across jurisdictions.
CDQ data model	Basic data concepts of CDQ Cloud Services.
Country metadata	Managed reference data for countries based on ISO 3166-2 standards, used for harmonization, validation, and international data interoperability.
County (administrative area) metadata	Managed reference data for counties, including their ISO 3166-2 codes and hierarchical relationships.
Data quality rules	Documentation of 2,921 data quality rules with explanation and technical constraints to validate business partner data records.
Legal form metadata	Managed reference data for legal forms with official and commonly used abbreviations and corresponding country.
Locality metadata	Managed reference data for localities (such as cities or towns) used for harmonization and standardization, including exonym terms in multiple languages.
Post code metadata	Managed reference data for post codes used for validation, harmonization, and standardization of postal addressing.
Postal delivery point metadata	Managed reference data for postal delivery points, such as Post Office Boxes, used for identification, extraction, harmonization and standardization.
Region (administrative area) metadata	Managed reference data for regions, including their ISO 3166-2 codes and hierarchical relationships.
Registration authority metadata	Managed reference data for registration authorities responsible for issuing and maintaining official business identifiers.
Thoroughfare metadata	Managed reference data for thoroughfares of type STREET used for harmonization and standardization.

Facts and figures

Administrative areas	130
Countries	832
Data quality rules	2,921
Data sources	234
Identifiers	503
Legal forms	8,883
Registration authorities (issuing bodies)	278
Terms	1,108