Not So Elusive - Quality Information on Private European Companies: Bureau van Dijk’s Response to the Business Information Resources Survey 2003

Offers a number of comments and observations on the Business Information Resources Survey 2003 from the viewpoint of the work and experience of Bureau van Dijk (BvD), in order to balance out any misconceptions that exist regarding gaps in its own areas of expertise. Focuses attention on the section of the survey entitled ‘Inadequate coverage’, where survey participants were asked: ‘Are there any areas of business information that are not covered adequately by the current range of sources?’ Points out that, at BvD, there is a lack of information for private European companies and pan-European official company data. BvD finds that customers are normally very familiar with methods of filing company information in their own country; but confusion often exists when this differs in other countries. In the case of Europe, and specifically the European Union (EU) member states, it would be helpful to set out how company results are filed in Europe, explaining the official sites for registration and explaining how gaps are caused by a lack of the legal obligation to file information rather than oversight by information providers. Describes how BvD has endeavoured to minimize any gaps and how effectively the need for information on private company information in Europe is provided for by BvD’s pan-European company information product, AMADEUS. In creating AMADEUS, which is updated monthly, BvD developed a financial template that best reflects all European accounting formats and that facilitates cross-border searching and analysis. AMADEUS is updated monthly. Statistics are tabulated to show the worldwide coverage of AMADEUS. It is concluded that good quality information on private companies in Europe, from official sources, is not as elusive as suggested in point 26 of the survey.