In today’s business landscape, making informed decisions is no longer optional — it’s essential. Assessing the reliability of clients, partners, and suppliers is key to minimizing risk, protecting investments, and building lasting relationships.

Commercial information is a vital tool in this process. When properly managed, it can determine the success or failure of a company by providing verified data on businesses and individuals, useful for evaluating reliability, solvency, and reputation.

In this article, we’ll explore what commercial information is, what data it includes, the benefits of using it, and how to integrate it automatically into your business systems via API.

What is Commercial Information?

Commercial information refers to a structured set of data collected and updated on economic entities (businesses, professionals, and individuals) with the goal of evaluating their financial reliability, solvency, and reputation. It’s not just about numbers: top data sources also provide interpretations and predictive indicators, turning raw data into actionable insights to support better decision-making.

It is used to prevent defaults, estimate credit risk, and support strategic decisions in commercial, financial, and legal contexts.

Types of Commercial Information: Companies and Individuals

As mentioned, commercial information can refer to:

• Legal Entities / Companies: Data on financial statements, protests, company roles, management structure, certifications, insolvency proceedings, legal records, and business history.
• Individuals: Information on property ownership, protests, shareholdings, company roles, legal proceedings, and financial status.

What is Commercial Information Used For?

Commercial information helps to:

• Assess the risk of default by a partner or customer.
• Obtain guarantees on the financial strength of suppliers.
• Identify new opportunities: market trends, market size, growth forecasts, and business potential.
• Support strategic business decisions.
• Prevent fraud or unethical behavior in business relationships.

Key Commercial Information to Know

1. Economic and Financial Information

• Revenue, profit, net assets, debt levels
• Financial performance in recent years
• Official filed financial statements
• Solvency and liquidity indicators

2. Financial and Risk Assessments

• Commercial rating or reliability score
• Predictive analysis of default risk
• Custom risk classification

3. Legal Information

• Chamber of Commerce registration and company extracts
• Insolvency proceedings (bankruptcies, arrangements, liquidations)
• Legal issues and protested payments
• Pending or past court cases

4. Company Registry Data

• Identification data: company name, VAT number, tax code
• Registered office, local units, corporate purpose, articles of association, date of incorporation
• ATECO codes and business activities

5. Information on Company Stakeholders

• List of directors and shareholders and their respective shares
• Corporate structure and related shareholdings
• Changes in company roles
• Connections between companies (groups, holdings, affiliates)

Why Is It So Important?

Commercial information helps to anticipate risks linked to defaults, unreliable clients, or suppliers. In particular, it helps to:

• Reduce credit risk
• Support customer acquisition and growth strategies
• Provide a detailed snapshot of the economic health of businesses and individuals
• Enable accurate assessments of business partners' and clients’ reputation and stability

It’s also essential for those managing credit, compliance, partner analysis, or expansion into new markets.

What Data Is Included in Commercial Reports on Individuals

• Personal and residency information
• Verification of existence (in specific cases)
• Protests and negative credit history
• Company roles and shareholdings
• Real estate and vehicle ownership
• Ongoing or past legal proceedings

Main Advantages of Using Commercial Information

• Reduced default risk: knowing the reliability of clients or suppliers in advance
• Optimized credit management: more informed decisions on payment terms
• Better business decisions: support for investments, partnerships, and commercial strategies
• Competitive advantage: better monitoring of the market and competitors
• Fraud prevention: spotting red flags before closing a deal

Use Cases for Commercial Information

• Before a partnership or M&A, to assess the counterpart
• For credit management and debt recovery activities
• To identify new markets or customer segments
• For periodic customer screening to spot potential issues early

Where This Information Comes From

This data is collected from official sources such as:

• Chambers of Commerce (Business Register)
• Official Land Registry databases
• Public Property Register and Courts databases
• Credit rating sites and sector-specific databases
• Authorized investigative firms

Using commercial information has become essential for any organization wanting to operate safely, competitively, and with awareness in today’s market. Immediate access to this data enables fast, secure, and growth-oriented decision-making.

Commercial Information via API: Real-Time Integration into Business Systems

In recent years, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) have also revolutionized access to commercial information, making it automatic, fast, and scalable. Through these interfaces, companies and software tools can query commercial databases in real time, integrating the information directly into business systems (CRMs, ERPs, e-commerce platforms, customer onboarding tools, etc.).

Key advantages include:

• Process automation: no more manual research or downloading documents
• Real-time responses: instant verification of company profiles, protests, and reliability scores
• KYC and AML checks: for regulatory compliance
• Flexible integration: every flow can be adapted to your business needs (e.g., customer checks before order processing, partner onboarding, preliminary risk analysis)

Openapi: Real-Time Commercial Information via API

Openapi is one of the leading European providers of API-based data services. With over 400 active APIs, it allows easy and secure access to:

• Company and personal data (up to 1,300 data points for Italian businesses)
• A database of over 500 million companies worldwide
• Reliability scores and negative event data
• Company reports, protests, legal records, and detailed profiles
• Identity and property verification
• Real estate and vehicle data

Every piece of data is available in just seconds, starting from a fraction of a euro, and ready to be integrated into your company’s systems to enhance operational efficiency and decision-making quality.