Who Dun & Bradstreet is
Dun & Bradstreet has collected business information for more than 180 years. Its D-U-N-S Number, a unique nine-digit identifier for businesses, is used by companies, governments and agencies around the world to identify the businesses they deal with.
The company is based in Jacksonville, Florida, and has been owned since August 2025 by investment funds managed by Clearlake Capital. Its Direct+ API resolves a company to its D-U-N-S Number and returns data blocks on identity, ownership, hierarchies and risk, which is why it is one of the credit and risk data providers our merchant onboarding module connects to.
What it does in your platform
Merchant onboarding
Identifies each merchant's company by its D-U-N-S Number and reads its risk: company details, ownership and hierarchy, and risk indicators, weighed by your underwriting rules. After approval, monitoring reports changes to the company.
How the connection works
One connector in the merchant onboarding module talks to D&B Direct+, Dun & Bradstreet's API. Its credentials stay in the platform's secrets, and every call is made from the platform.
The merchant applies
In your app, with the company's name, address and registration number.
The company is matched
Direct+ identity resolution compares those details with Dun & Bradstreet's records and returns candidate matches with their D-U-N-S Numbers.
The record is enriched
For the matched D-U-N-S Number, the module requests the data blocks your policy needs, such as company information, ownership and risk indicators.
Your rules decide
Your underwriting rules read the result: clear cases are approved, the rest go to your underwriters with everything on one screen.
Monitoring starts
Approved merchants are registered for Direct+ monitoring, so changes to their records reach the module.
One identifier throughout
The D-U-N-S Number stays on the merchant's record in the backoffice and ties every later check to the same company.
Next to other providers
Dun & Bradstreet sits in the module's credit and risk data, next to Creditsafe and Experian. Its data is weighed together with the registry checks, the owners' KYC results and your own rules, on one underwriting screen.
The rules and the screen belong to the module, not to the provider. Adding Creditsafe or Experian next to Dun & Bradstreet, or moving away from it later, does not change your app, and past results stay in the merchant's record with the provider that produced them.
When Dun & Bradstreet fits best
A strong fit when
- Your merchants trade internationally, and you want one identifier for each company across countries.
- You need ownership and corporate hierarchies in underwriting, not only a score.
- Your teams already use D-U-N-S Numbers in procurement, finance or compliance.
Also worth a look
- Creditsafe, for credit reports with a recommended credit limit and monitoring from one API.
- Experian, for UK merchants and credit checks on their directors.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Dun & Bradstreet account and Direct+ contract in place, with the data blocks your policy needs.
The matching
We set up with you how strong a match must be to pass, and which data blocks feed your underwriting rules.
The keys
The Direct+ credentials go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else, and the app never calls Dun & Bradstreet directly.
A full test run
Before go-live, the flow runs end to end on test applications for real companies, and your underwriters check the matches and the results.
