OPEN CORPORATE: What It Is, Account, Database & What You Must Know

Open Corporate
image source: CREC co working

Open corporations are publicly traded. Open corporations are public corporations. An “open corporation” need not trade on a stock exchange. In this post, we will be looking into what is an open corporate, its bank account opening, and its database. Fasten your seatbelt.

Open Corporate 

A website called OpenCorporates distributes corporate data under the copyleft Open Database License. The business was established on December 20, 2010, by Rob McKinnon and Chris Taggart. Journalists, anti-corruption investigators, civil society, banks, financial institutions, corporate information aggregators, and governments all use OpenCorporates, a company that creates open databases.

How Do Opencorporates Work? 

A program to make more government information accessible to the public includes the release of company data that demonstrates the intricate connections between multinational corporations and the subsidiaries of those corporations on a global scale. The Open Data Institute, founded by the man who created the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, is sharing data on millions of global corporations and their subsidiaries through OpenCorporates for the first time ever.

One of the first concrete steps following the G8 meeting, when member governments committed to making data easily discoverable, usable, or accessible by the general public, is the announcement of this move. The OpenCorporates website maps the connections between businesses registered in various jurisdictions using sophisticated analytics technologies, exposing intricate networks of ownership.

In order to make the relationships between the organizations easy to grasp, it can exhibit the results graphically in the form of maps or network diagrams. The website is a valuable resource for credit checks, stockholders, and journalists. According to Chris Taggart, CEO of OpenCorporates, “it is also vital for procurement officials and lawyers who need to comprehend conflicts of interest.”

Open Corporate Bank Account 

As a business owner, you ought to keep your personal and corporate accounts separate. This is necessary since you must distinguish between your personal and corporate income. You should not combine these two at all. There are numerous other reasons to have a separate open corporate bank account for your business in addition to the requirement to keep your personal and corporate finances separate. These are a few of these reasons:

  • It makes tracking your business transactions simple.
  • By making it simple to identify taxable benefits and deductions, it streamlines your record-keeping.
  • It makes it simpler for you to control and respond to your existing financial condition.
  • When you send a business account to your consumers, it lends legitimacy to your company.
  • It demonstrates business professionalism.
  • Banks and the government always require it for company loans and grants.

The bank will ask you for a few documents in order to open a business account for your company. When visiting the bank for this purpose, it is highly beneficial to be aware of and prepared with all these documents. This would expedite the procedure and result in the opening of your account very quickly.

I’ll list these requirements in two categories: corporate accounts, which are useful for business accounts for companies, and business accounts, which are useful for accounts for entities that have registered as business names.

The following papers must be submitted in order to open a corporate bank account:

  • Resolution of the Board approving the account signatories and approving the account opening.
  • Copies of several incorporation paperwork, primarily CAC 2, CAC 7, and MEMART
  • The director’s home address.
  • Pictures of the signers’ passports.
  • Verification by Bank Directors and signatories count
  • The directors must have a legal identity, such as a passport or driver’s license.
  • Company’s tax identification number
  • Utility bills from business addresses, including those from the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and water. Any of them will do.
  • Proof of DNFI firms’ Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) registration.
  • Two letters of recommendation from corporate account holders.

The following papers would be necessary for an entity registered as a business name:

  1. Certificate of business name registration.
  2. A photo of the company owner from their passport.
  3. The residential address of the company’s proprietors.
  4. The proprietor’s BVN.
  5. The owner of the business’s utility bills, such as those from the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and water. Any of them will do.
  6. Documentation showing that businesses classified as DNFIs have registered with the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) (if applicable)
  7. A legitimate form of identity for the business owner, such as a passport from another country or a license.
  8. The company’s tax identification number.

If you operate several enterprises, you should open as many business accounts as you can. It is advised that you do that so that you can track the revenue and costs from each firm separately.

Open Corporate Database 

This company makes open, official company data available to everyone as the biggest open database in the world. Data that is available for access, analysis, and interrogation as needed. Information the world needs. They aim to become the global leader in company data with a positive social impact under the OpenCorporates Guidelines. They also allow journalists, NGOs, and academics free access to their data products for public benefit studies.

Penetration of Corporate Networks

It is the main entry point via which links appear to travel. That matters to regulators and insurers who are worried about risk, according to Taggart. Other investigations highlight the global interests of IBM, Starbucks, and Barclays while exposing a complex global network of related businesses. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Federal Reserve System’s National Information Centre, and the New Zealand corporation registration all provide data that is useful for OpenCorporates. Nevertheless, due in part to the costs imposed by Companies House and in part because information on UK shareholders is not readily accessible in a digital format, Taggart has not yet been able to incorporate data from the UK’s Companies House. In the future, Open Corporate wants to expand its database sources and incorporate crowdsourcing tools into its website, allowing anyone to contribute information about business ties that are typically hidden in annual reports’ fine print.

In the future, Open Corporate wants to expand its database sources and incorporate crowdsourcing tools into its website, allowing anyone to contribute information about business ties that are typically hidden in annual reports’ fine print. Also, in the future, OpenCorporates wants to expand its data sources and incorporate crowdsourcing tools into its website, allowing anyone to contribute information about business ties that are typically hidden in annual reports’ fine print.

Open Data Takes the Lead From Open-Source Software.

As more firm data becomes available, Taggart expects increased pressure on companies to disclose their organizational structures. The more open and proactive businesses will begin to assert that they have nothing to hide and will simply broadcast their corporate network rather than letting the masses do it, he said.

The open-source software movement serves as the inspiration for the business strategy of OpenCorporates, which has received initial funding from Alfred P. Sloan, one of Wikipedia’s supporters.

The company’s data is free, but companies who wish to use it for profit must buy a license.

Public Inspection will Enhance the Accuracy of the Statistics.

According to him, exposing firm information to the public will enhance the quality of the information regulatory authorities have. For instance, individuals using OpenCorporates have already discovered flaws in the corporate data gathered by the US Federal Reserve. Tim Berners-Lee and professor of artificial intelligence Nigel Shadbolt formed the Open Data Institute (ODI) in London, which is home to a variety of businesses, including OpenCorporates. “Businesses that support moral business practices and fair trade have nothing to fear and stand to gain much from open data.

Is Opencorporates Free? 

They provide free and paid access to our website and API, respectively. These terms and conditions augment any paid-for contracts you may have signed for the use of the API; in the event of a dispute, the terms of the paid-for contracts will control.

What Is Open Cooperation? 

A company is considered to be open if its own shares can be traded on a public market.

Who Owns Opencorporates? 

Founder and chief strategy officer Chris Taggart

How Reliable Is Opencorporates? 

OpenCorporates uses government data and official records for all its content. Because they aim to replicate public records, they don’t eliminate businesses or information.

How Do I Get Out of Opencorporates? 

If a public business register asks to erase or restrict access to your information, email [email protected].

References

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