Release: CX-Titan (Current)

CX-0010 Business Partner Number v3.0.1

FOR WHOM IS THE STANDARD DESIGNED

This document is mainly targeted to technical individuals involved in issuing and maintaining business partner numbers, as well as business individuals who are involved in the compliance process of issuing and maintaining business partner numbers.

COMPARISON WITH THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE STANDARD

Version	Publishing Date	Description of Change
1.1.0	2022-11-30	Initial version by Catena-X Association
1.1.1	2023-06-03	Addendum for Conformity Assessment added
2.0.0	2023-09-26	Included new terminology chapter; merged CX-0011 Issuing Agency
2.1.0	2024-12-02	Adapted to new template structure and made a major overhaul of the document; documented the scope of the check characters; remove reference to ISO/IEC 15459 until it is clarified, if the BPN shall be used for unit identifiers and / or if ISO/IEC 6523 is sufficient
2.2.0	2025-03-17	Add reference and adapt wording regarding ISO/IEC 6523 registration of the BPN
3.0.0	2025-06-01	Added the new quality "legally secure" to the BPNL and added the legally secure identifiers that the BPNL refers to as a table; added detailed identifier type description; added format and identifier type category attributes to the identifier type; updated to the major version 7 of the BPN issuing service.

ABSTRACT

The Business Partner Data Management (BPDM) is a distributed service-based system, composed of a set of dedicated services, that simultaneously serve multiple stakeholders and use cases. It is based on a central data pool of business partners, which is operated under data space governance and underlies interoperability through standardization. The main target is to create business partner data records (such as customer/supplier) with a high quality and currentness, to provide other processes with these data. This results in less rework and adjustment due to better master data quality which ultimately leads to an overall cost reduction for participating companies. Additionally, Value Added Services shall be offered to enrich those business partner data sets even further and give additional information or warnings about the business partners. Getting a 360° view on your business partners also helps with reducing costs and achieving process excellence because better decisions can be made.

The Business Partner Number (BPN) is a globally unique, world-wide scalable, semantically enriched, interoperable, time-dependent, stable, human-readable identifier for business partners known in the data space that represent an organization or one of its organization parts from foundation to closure. Additionally, the BPNL (BPN for legal entities) is legally secure. Consequently, it is also the unique identifier for the data space participants. The Catena-X Business Partner Number serves as a blueprint for similar data spaces that follow the Catena-X concepts, which promotes interoperability between these data spaces.

This standard defines the issuance process, structure, and lifecycle of BPNs. It also defines what types of BPNs there are and how they are linked to each other.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 AUDIENCE & SCOPE

This section is non-normative

This standard is relevant for the following audience:

Core Service Provider
Onboarding Service Provider
Business Application Provider
Data Provider and Consumer

This document focuses on the business partner number (BPN) and its issuing organization (IO). It is used as primary identifier in the Business Partner Data Management (BPDM) use case described on the BPDM website. It is relevant for core service providers who want to provide services for retrieving a cleansed, high-quality business partner data record (Golden Record) for a given business partner number. It is also relevant for onboarding service providers, business application providers as well as data providers and consumers who want to use such services. To assume the role of the issuing organization (IO), core service providers especially need to get an understanding on the issuance process, structure, lifecycle, types, and relations of a BPN.

The Business Partner Number (BPN) is a globally unique, world-wide scalable, semantically enriched, interoperable, time-dependent, stable, human-readable identifier for business partners known in the data space that represent an organization or one of its organization parts from foundation to closure. Additionally, the BPN (BPN for legal entities) is legally secure. Consequently, it is also the unique identifier for the data space participants. The Catena-X Business Partner Number serves as a blueprint for similar data spaces that follow the Catena-X concepts, which promotes interoperability between these data spaces.

Not in scope is the way of how business partner data records can be shared to create a Golden Record. There is a separate standard for this: CX-0074 Business Partner Data Gate API 4.0.0.

Not in scope is the overall Business Partner Pool with all Golden Records within the data space and the way of how the Golden Records can be retrieved. There is a separate standard for this: CX-0012 Business Partner Pool API 5.0.0.

Not in scope are the requirements of cleansing and enriching the business partner data records with the aim to create a Golden Record. There is a separate standard for this: CX-0076 Golden Record End to End Requirements Standard 1.4.0.

You can find the other standards in the standard library.

1.2 CONTEXT AND ARCHITECTURE FIT

This section is non-normative

It is not only with the founding of various industry data spaces (such as Catena-X) that the requirements increase to establish data standards for the entire value chain and to promote the industry-wide, international data exchange. For the networking of OEMs, suppliers, customers, and industrial partners, it is essential to define and introduce an industry-wide standard for identifying business partners to map the entire supply chain in a sustainable manner.

In order to satisfy this requirement, an issuance process is established and structure, lifecycle, types, and relations are defined for a business partner number that has the following targeted qualities:

the BPN is a globally unique identifier, with which an organization or one of its organization parts have exactly one identifier world-wide, so that no two organizations or organization parts have the same identifier and no two identifiers stand for the same organization or organization part
the BPN is a world-wide scalable identifier, that is able to identify all organizations and their organization parts on a global scale
the BPN is a semantically enriched identifier, that includes the type of the business partner it identifies
the BPN is an interoperable identifier, which is used cross-application and cross-organization in all conceivable business contexts
the BPN is a time-dependent identifier, that has a validity for which it identifies an organization or one of its organization parts in the (legally) defined limits of their existence
the BPN is a stable identifier, which never changes structurally, never ceases to exist and never is reassigned, even if the organization or one of its organization parts ceases to exist
the BPN is a human-readable identifier, that is comparable to a telephone number or a postal code
the BPN is an identifier, which inherently supports error detection

Additionally:

the BPNL is a legally secure¹ identifier, that enables the unambiguous identification of contracting parties, ensuring a reliable foundation for legally binding data exchange contracts

There is a reference implementation for the Business Partner Data Pool BPN Issuing Service (7.0.x) on GitHub. It is part of a Spring Boot Kotlin open-source software project under the hood of the Eclipse Foundation and follows the Apache 2.0 licenses.

For the complete and up-to-date BPDM setup refer to the Eclipse Tractus-X BPDM GitHub repository (7.0.x).

For an architecture overview refer to the BPDM ARC42 documentation (7.0.x).

1.3 CONFORMANCE AND PROOF OF CONFORMITY

If sections are marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in these sections are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.

The key words MAY, MUST, MUST NOT, OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED, REQUIRED, SHOULD and SHOULD NOT in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC2119, RFC8174 when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

All participants and their solutions will need to prove, that they are conform with the Catena-X standards. To validate that the standards are applied correctly, Catena-X employs Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs).

To prove conformity with this standard, a self-audited, declared and signed document must be provided, that the conformity assessment criteria documented in this standard regarding issuance process, structure, lifecycle, types, and relations of BPNs are met.

1.4 EXAMPLES

An example for the BPN is: BPNL 0000 0000 IF61

BPN: marks the identifier as BPN

L: identifies the type of the business partner; in this case its a legal entity

0000 0000 IF: identifies the business partner

61 : are the check characters of the whole BPN

The BPNL can have relations to BPNA and BPNS which are depicted in the following example:

BPN Example

1.5 TERMINOLOGY

This section is non-normative

1.5.1 GENERAL

organization: unique framework of authority within which a person or persons act, or are designated to act, towards some purpose ²

organization part: any department, service or other entity within an organization, which needs to be identified for information interchange ²

issuing organization (IO): the issuing organization (IO) is a body that assumes responsibility for the administration of a specific organization identification scheme ³

organization identification scheme: a system for allocating identifiers to registered objects (identification scheme) which is dedicated to the unique identification of organizations ²

International Codes Designator (ICD): data element used to uniquely identify an organization identification scheme ²

organization identifier (OI): assigned to an organization within an organization identification scheme, and unique within that scheme ²

organization part identifier (OPI): an identifier allocated to a particular organization part ²

organization part identifier source indicator (OPIS): data element used to specify the source for the organization part identifier ²

Golden Record: A Golden Record is a business partner data record which successfully passed a set of predefined quality rules. These rules qualified the data record into a harmonized, standardized, and semantically unified data structure which is defined by the BPDM standards. The Golden Record status is a prerequisite for each business partner data record to receive a valid business partner number.

1.5.2 DATA MODEL

This chapter explains the data model⁴ from a conceptual / terminology point of view. It does not include technical details of the API data model, such as:

differences in response and request
differences in data stages (like input or output)
attributes for pagination
singular query parameters, which are not already attributes of the entities

1.5.2.1 BUSINESS PARTNER

Business Partner

In general, a business partner is any entity (such as a customer, a supplier, an employee, or a service provider) that does business with another entity.

In data spaces, a business partner is an organization (such as an enterprise or company, university, association, etc., and not a natural person) or one of its organization parts that acts as unique partner within the supply chain - either in the role of a direct participant, or a consultant, or a non-production-material (NPM) supplier.

BPDM distinguishes between three business partner types to represent an organization or one of its organization parts relevant for the supply chain (see detailed definitions): legal entity, site, and address⁵.

1.5.2.2 LEGAL ENTITY

Legal Entity

In general, a legal entity is a juridical person that has legal rights and duties related to contracts, agreements, and obligations. The term especially applies to any kind of organization established under the law applicable to a country.

In data spaces, a legal entity is a type of business partner representing a legally registered organization with its official registration information, such as legal name (including legal form, if registered), legal address and a legally secure external identifier (e.g. VAT ID, TIN, HRB number, LEI).

A legal entity has exactly one legal address, but it is possible to specify additional addresses that a legal entity owns. Thus, at least one address is assigned to a legal entity. A legal entity can own sites. Thus, many or no sites are assigned to a legal entity. A legal entity is uniquely identified by the BPNL.

1.5.2.3 SITE

Site

In general, a site is a delimited geographical area in which an organization conducts business.

In data spaces, a site is a type of business partner representing a physical location or area owned by a legal entity, where a production plant, a warehouse, or an office building is located.

A site is owned by a legal entity. Thus, exactly one legal entity is assigned to a site. A site has exactly one main address⁶, but it is possible to specify additional addresses (such as different gates), that belong to a site. Thus, at least one address is assigned to a site. A site can only be uploaded and modified by the owner (the legal entity), because only the owner knows which addresses belong to which site. A site is uniquely identified by the BPNS.

1.5.2.4 ADDRESS

Address

In general, an address is a collection of information to describe a physical location, using a street name with a house number and/or a post office box as reference. In addition, an address consists of several postal attributes, such as country, region (state), county, township, city, district, or postal code, which help deliver mail.

In data spaces, an address is a type of business partner representing the legal address of a legal entity, and/or the main address⁶ of a site, or any additional address of a legal entity or site (such as different gates).

An address is owned by a legal entity. Thus, exactly one legal entity is assigned to an address. An address can belong to a site. Thus, one or no site is assigned to an address. An address is uniquely identified by the BPNA.

1.5.2.5 IDENTIFIER TYPE

Identifier Type

An identifier type defines the name or category of an identifier, such as the German Handelsregisternummer, a VAT registration / taxpayer identification number, etc. The identifier type is valid for a business partner type and used in a specific country.

Attribute	Description	(Data) Type / Code List / Enumeration
Technical Key	The technical identifier of the identifier type.	String
Name	The local name of the identifier type.	String
Business Partner Type	One of the types of business partners for which the identifier type is valid: legal entity, address	Enum
Identifier Type Category	One of the categories of identifier types: VAT, TIN, NBR, IBR, OTH (see also below)	Enum
Abbreviation	The local abbreviated name of the identifier type.	String
Transliterated Name	The transliterated local name of the identifier type.	String
Transliterated Abbreviation	The transliterated local abbreviated name of of the identifier type.	String
Format	The regular expression for the identifier type format	String

An identifier type can be classified into one or more of the following identifier type categories:

VAT: value-added tax registration (so-called value-added tax identification numbers (VAT IDs or VATINs), e.g. EU VAT ID, UID MWST/TVA/IPA)
TIN: taxpayer identification (so-called taxpayer identification numbers (TINs), e.g. SIREN, NIF)
NBR: national business registration (e.g. HRB-Nummer, Firmenbuchnummer) for different purposes (e.g. commercial register, trade register), which are not related to tax
IBR: international business registration (e.g. LEI, EORI) for different purposes (e.g. regulatory reporting, risk management at financial regulatory bodies)
OTH: other identifier types (e.g. D&B D-U-N-S, GS1 GLN), which are not legally secure

1.5.2.1 IDENTIFIER TYPE DETAILS

The identifier type details describe for which countries an identifier is valid and mandatory

Attribute	Description	(Data) Type / Code List / Enumeration
Country	The two-letter country code according to ISO 3166-1:2020 of the country in which the identifier type is valid. Can be empty if identifier type is valid in all countries.	String
Mandatory	Indicates whether the identifier type is mandatory in the country.	Boolean

2 BUSINESS PARTNER NUMBER

This section is normative

The BPN is a globally unique, world-wide scalable, semantically enriched, interoperable, time-dependent, stable, human-readable identifier for business partners that represent an organization or one of its organization parts from foundation to closure. It also inherently supports error detection. Additionally, the BPNL is legally secure. All conformity assessment criteria that guarantee these qualities are listed and explained below.

2.1 ISSUANCE PROCESS

The issuing organization MUST issue BPNs for the following business partners in accordance with the ISO/IEC 6523-1:2023 and this standard:

legal entities (BPNL), such that the BPN is an organization identifier (OI) in the sense of the ISO/IEC 6523-1:2023
sites (BPNS), such that the BPN is an organization part identifier (OPI) in the sense of the ISO/IEC 6523-1:2023
addresses (BPNA), such that the BPN is an organization part identifier (OPI) in the sense of the ISO/IEC 6523-1:2023

Note that for this standard, organization part identifiers (OPIs, like BPNS and BPNA) are issued by the issuing organization only, so that the organization part identifier source indicator (OPIS) is always 0. As the OPIS can be considered a constant it is NOT REQUIRED to be included in any data exchange.

The issuing organization MUST centrally issue BPNs, so that they are globally unique and can be used cross-application and cross-organization in an interoperable way in a data space. Catena-X e.V. grants a license through which an operating company can issue BPNs on behalf of the Catena-X e.V. and thus assume the role of the issuing organization.⁷

The issuing organization MUST issue BPNLs for capital companies (such as German GmbH, AG; British Ltd., PLC; French SARL, SA etc.). All other legal forms are OPTIONAL for the issuance of BPNLs and thus not regulated by this standard, such as:

(commercial) partnerships
sole-proprietorships
cooperatives
associations
public sector companies
non-profit organizations

The issuing organization MUST NOT issue BPNLs, BPNSs or BPNAs for the following real-world entities, as they are not considered as organizations or organization parts in the sense of this standard:

natural persons (such as employees) who act for a legal entity and are not a legal entity on their own
elements of (legal) hierarchies if they are not a legal entity on their own

The issuing organization MUST NOT issue BPNLs and SHOULD NOT issue BPNSs and BPNAs for the following real-world entities, as they are not considered as organizations or organization parts in the sense of this standard, especially due to their rather logistical function and / or non-standardized / restricted / missing usage as business partner data objects in master data management systems:

forms of freight forwarding (such as c/o addresses)
internal loading / unloading points

The issuing organization MUST issue BPNs for organization and organization parts in all member states of the European Union, Great Britain, Switzerland, Norway, and Northern Ireland (Protocol). All other countries as well as oversea dependencies / locations outside of Europe of the aforementioned countries are OPTIONAL for the issuance of BPNs and thus not regulated by this standard.

The BPN issuance process MUST be coupled to the creation of a Golden Record, so that a BPN is only issued if a corresponding Golden Record exists.

To ensure that the BPNL is legally secure, the Golden Record for the BPNL MUST contain the legal name, legal form and legal address of the organization. Furthermore, the Golden Record for the BPNL MUST contain at least one external identifier of a legally secure identifier type (see 2.5 IDENTIFIER TYPES), so that the following rules apply:

if the country of the organization's legal address has a VAT identifier type and the organization is subject to value-added tax, a VAT identifier MUST be contained in the Golden Record
if 1. does not hold true and the country of the organizations's legal address has a TIN identifier type which is publicly available and the organization is subject to any tax in that country, a TIN identifier MUST be contained in the Golden Record
if 2. does not hold true and the country of the organizations's legal address has an NBR identifier type with which the organization is registered in that country, an NBR identifier MUST be contained in the Golden Record
if 3. does not hold true (which is very unlikely) and the organization has an IBR identifier, an IBR identifier MUST be contained in the Golden Record
if 4. does not hold true, a BPNL MUST NOT be issued

Identifiers of identifier types that do not fall into the above rules are OPTIONAL to be contained in the Golden Record. This also applies to the identifiers assigned to the BPNA, so that a BPN can be issued for an address without an identifier.

2.2 STRUCTURE

The structure of a BPN MUST be registered as an organization identification scheme according to ISO/IEC 6523-1:2023 and ISO/IEC 6523-2:1998 with the Registration Authority under an International Code Designator (ICD), so that only the issuing organization can issue organization identifiers or organization part identifiers for this scheme.

The BPN MUST have the following structure, being a 16-character identifier:

Prefix	Type Character	Entity Characters	Check Characters
BPN	1 character	10 characters	2 characters

A well-defined and standardized structure, which relies on existing standards as well as on common practice, guarantees acceptance:

the prefix is always "BPN" in upper case, which marks the identifier as a Business Partner Number
the type character semantically enriches the BPN, so that the type of the business partner can be directly determined. It is one of the uppercase letters 'L', 'S', or 'A':
- L stands for legal entity
- S stands for site
- A stands for address
the entity characters are alphanumerical uppercase characters that ensure that the BPN is world-wide scalable, being capable of identifying 36^10 ~ 3.6 quadrillion different business partners per type
the check characters are alphanumerical uppercase characters that implement the error detection using a verification algorithm according to ISO/IEC 7064:2003 MOD 1271-36

The regular expression for the BPN is: BPN[LSA][A-Z0-9]{10}[A-Z0-9]{2}

Further requirements:

the check characters MUST be calculated over the entire BPN (prefix, type and entity code), to fully support error detection
the following input or reading aid using blanks SHOULD be used to even further increase human-readability of the BPN, e.g.: BPNL 0000 0000 IF61

2.3 LIFECYCLE

The BPN of a business partner has an own lifecycle, depending on the corresponding state of the business partner in the real world.

Therefore, each business partner in BPDM MUST have a state with the following state definitions:

active
inactive

As the BPN is time-dependent, the state MUST have a start and an end date, which defines the validity of the business partner (state) and thus the validity of the BPN.

Even if a business partner becomes inactive, the business partner and its BPN MUST be further accessible. The BPN MUST NOT change structurally over its lifetime. Both requirements are crucial for the BPN to be considered as stable.

2.4 RELATIONS

Business Partner

There are the following relations between a legal entity, its sites, and its addresses:

Each legal entity MUST be associated to at least one address which is its legal address
Each site MUST be associated to at least one address which is its main address⁶
Each site MUST be associated to exactly one legal entity
Each address MUST be associated to exactly one legal entity
Each address MUST be either associated to none or no more than one site
It MUST be possible to associate multiple addresses to a legal entity
It MUST be possible to associate multiple sites to a legal entity
It MUST be possible to associate multiple addresses to a site

2.5 IDENTIFIER TYPES

In the following table, the identifier types for legal entities are listed with their corresponding identifier type codes.

Legend:

column C contains the country code
column Category contains the identifier type category code
column ITC contains the identifier type code (technical key)
column Name contains the local name of the identifier type
column Transliterated Name contains the transliterated local name of the identifier type
column Abbr contains the local abbreviation of the identifier type
column TAbbr contains the transliterated local abbreviation of the identifier type
column Format contains the regular expression for the identifier type format

The name MUST be the local name for the identifier type used in the country. If the identifier type is used in multiple countries (e.g. EU-wide or world-wide) it MUST be the English name. The name MUST be mandatory. It SHOULD not use abbreviations.

The abbreviation MUST be the local short form of the identifier type used in that country. If the identifier type is used in multiple countries (e.g. EU-wide or world-wide) it MUST be the English short form. The abbreviation MUST be mandatory.

Both name and abbreviation are required in the local form, to make sure the exact identifier type is meant and not an artificial abstraction, which possibly includes several different identifier types. Note that sometimes it's OK to use the English name and abbreviation, if it's a real-world abstraction for several countries, like the EU VAT ID.

The transliterated name and abbreviation MUST be the latinized form of name and abbreviation according to standardized transliteration rules using only Latin letters without diacritics ([A-Za-z]). This is important especially for non-latin based scripts, like Greek, Cyrillic, etc. However, transliterated name and abbreviation must also be included for latin based scripts with diacritics where diacritics MUST be replaced by the Latin letters without diacritics.

The technical key MUST have the form {scope}_{transliterated abbreviation}. The scope MUST be either an ISO 3166-1 2-letter country code or the abbreviation of an institution / system (like GLEIF, DUNS). Both scope and transliterated abbreviation MUST be capitalized. If the scope or transliterated abbreviation includes spaces, they MUST be replaced by underscores.

Note that it might be hard to adapt immediately to the identifier type codes proposed in this standard, as there are already current identifier type codes in use. It is RECOMMENDED to use these identifier type codes for new organizations and to map the current identifier type code to the new identifier type code for existing organizations so that both can be used in parallel, but the identifier type codes in this standard MUST be the leading ones.

Note that in some countries the TIN identifier is not publicly available, so it is not listed in the table. In these cases, the TIN identifier MUST NOT be used for the identification of organizations according to legal regulations in these countries.

Note that in those countries where the TIN identifier is publicly available, the VAT identifier is usually equal to or derived from the TIN identifier. In those countries where the TIN identifier is not publicly available, the VAT identifier is usually an identifier of its own kind or it is equal to or derived from the NBR identifier.

Note that in some countries there is no distinction between the NBR identifier and the TIN identifier so that for tax and commercial purposes only one identifier is used. In these cases the identifier type is marked with both, the NBR and TIN category.

Note that all of the NBR identifiers are publicly available. If they have a corresponding EUID the linked organizations can also be searched using the Business Register Interconnection System (BRIS) of the European Union.

Note that you can find the TIN identifier on the European Commission's website.

Note that you can look up some of the identifiers in the EZB AnaCredit list of national identifiers.

C	Category	ITC	Name	Transliterated Name	Abbr	TAbbr	Format
AT	NBR	AT_FBN	Firmenbuchnummer		FBN		^\d6[a-z]$
AT	VAT	AT_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^ATU\d7\d1$

BE	NBR	BE_OND	Ondernemingsnummer / Numéro d'entreprise	Ondernemingsnummer / Numero d'entreprise	OND-(nummer) / (numéro) ENT	OND-(nummer) / (numero) ENT	^[0,1]1\d3\d3\d1\d2$
BE	VAT	BE_BTW	Belasting over de toegevoegde waarde nummer / Numéro de taxe sur la valeur ajoutée	Belasting over de toegevoegde waarde nummer / Numero de taxe sur la valeur ajoutee	BTW(-nummer) / (numéro) TVA	BTW(-nummer) / (numero) TVA	^[0,1]\d3\d3\d1\d2$
BE	VAT	BE_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^BE[0,1]\d3\d3\d1\d2$

BG	NBR	BG_EIK	Единен идентификационен код	Edinen identifikatsionen kod	ЕИК	EIK	^\d9(\d1)?$
BG	VAT	BG_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^BG\d9(\d1)?$

CH	NBR/TIN	CH_UID	Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer		UID		^CHE-\d3.\d3.\d3$
CH	NBR	CH_EHRA_ID	Eidgenössisches Handelsregisteramt-Identifikationsnummer	Eidgenossisches Handelsregisteramt-Identifikationsnummer	EHRA-ID		^\d6$
CH	VAT	CH_UID_MWST	Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer (Mehrwertsteuer)		UID MWSt.		^CHE-\d3.\d3.\d3\s(MWST\|TVA\|IPA)$

CY	NBR	CY_AEE	Αριθμός Εγγραφής στο Τμήμα Εφόρου Εταιρειών	Arithmos Engrafis sto Tmima Eforou Etairion	AEE		^[A-Z]2\d8$
CY	TIN	CY_AFT	Αριθμός φορολογικής ταυτότητας	Arithmos forologikis tautotitas	ΑΦΤ	AFT	^[013945]1\d7[A-Z]1$
CY	VAT	CY_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^CY[013945]1\d7[A-Z]1$

CZ	NBR	CZ_ICO	Identifikační číslo osoby	Identifikacni cislo osoby	IČO	ICO	^[1-9]1\d8\d1$
CZ	TIN	CZ_DIC	Daňové identifikační číslo	Danove identifikacni cislo	DIČ	DIC	^[1-9]1\d8\d1$
CZ	VAT	CZ_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^CZ[1-9]1\d8\d1$

DE	NBR	DE_HR	Handelsregisternummer		HR(-nummer)		^([BDFGHKMNPRTUVWXY]1\d4[VR]?.)?((HRA)\|(G(n\|N)R)\|(HRB)\|(PR)\|(VR)\|(G(s\|S)R))[1-9]1[A-Z0-9]5$
DE	VAT	DE_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^DE\d8\d1(-\d5)?$

DK	NBR	DK_CVR	Centrale Virksomhedsregister Nummer		CVR(-nummer)		^\d7\d1$
DK	VAT	DK_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^DK\d7\d1$

EE	NBR	EE_RG	Äriregistri kood	Ariregistri kood	RG(-kood)		^\d8$
EE	VAT	EE_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^EE\d8\d1$

ES	NBR	ES_RM	Número de inscripción en el registro mercantil	Numero de inscripcion en el registro mercantil.	(número) RM	(numero) RM	^\d8$
ES	TIN	ES_NIF	Número de identificación fiscal (fka Código de identificación fiscal)	Numero de identificacion fiscal (fka Codigo de identificacion fiscal)	NIF		^[A-HJ-NP-SUVW]1\d2\d5[A-Z0-9]1$
ES	VAT	ES_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^ES[A-HJ-NP-SUVW]1\d2\d5[A-Z0-9]1$

FI	NBR	FI_Y	Yritys- ja yhteisötunnus	Yritys- ja yhteisotunnus	Y(-tunnus)		^\d7-\d1$
FI	VAT	FI_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^FI\d7\d1$

FR	NBR	FR_SIREN	Numéro des système d'identification du répertoire des entreprises	Numero du systeme d'identification du repertoire des entreprises	(numéro) SIREN	(numero) SIREN	^\d8\d1$
FR	VAT	FR_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^FR[A-Z0-9]2\d8\d1$

GB	NBR	GB_CRN	Company Registration Number		CRN		^((AC\|CE\|CS\|FC\|FE\|GE\|GS\|IC\|LP\|NC\|NF\|NI\|NL\|NO\|NP\|OC\|OE\|PC\|R0\|RC\|SA\|SC\|SE\|SF\|SG\|SI\|SL\|SO\|SR\|SZ\|ZC\|\d2)\d6)\|((IP\|SP\|RS)[A-Z\d]6)\|(SL\d5[\dA])$
GB	TIN	GB_UTR	Unique Taxpayer Reference		UTR		^\d10$
GB	VAT	GB_VAT_REG	Value-added Tax Registration Number		VAT Reg. (number)		^GB\d9(\d3)?$

GR	NBR	GR_GEMI	Αριθμός του γενικού εμπορικού μητρώου	Arithmos tou genikou emporikou mitroou	(Αρ.) Γ.Ε.ΜΗ.	(Ar.) G.E.MI.	^[0-9]12$
GR	TIN	GR_AFM	Αριθμός φορολογικού μητρώου	Arithmos forologikou mitroou	ΑΦΜ	AFM	^\d8\d1$
GR	VAT	GR_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^EL\d8\d1$

HR	NBR	HR_MBS	Matični broj subjekta trgovačkog suda	Maticni broj subjekta trgovackog suda	MBS		^[0-1]\d8$
HR	NBR/TIN	HR_OIB	Osobni identifikacijski broj		OIB		^\d9\d2$
HR	VAT	HR_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^HR\d9\d2$

HU	NBR	HU_CJS	Cégjegyzékszám	Cegjegyzekszam	CJS		^\d2-\d2-\d6$
HU	TIN	HU_AS	Adószám	Adoszam	AS		^\d8-\d1-\d2$
HU	VAT	HU_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^HU\d8$
HU	VAT	HU_CSPO_AFA_AZ	Csoportos általános forgalmi adó azonosító szám	Csoportos altalanos forgalmi ado azonosito szam	Csop. ÁFA az. (sz.)	Csop. AFA az. (sz.)	^HU\d8\d3$

IE	NBR	IE_CRO	Company Registration Office Number		CRO (number)		^[1-9]\d6$
IE	VAT	IE_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^IE\d7[A-Z]2$

IT	NBR	IT_REA	Numero del registro economico amministrativo		(numero) REA		^[A-Z]2-\d7$
IT	TIN	IT_CF	Codice fiscale		CF		^\d7\d3\d1$
IT	VAT	IT_IVA	Codice imposta sul valore aggiunto		(codice) IVA		^\d7\d3\d1$
IT	VAT	IT_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^IT\d7\d3\d1$

LT	NBR	LT_JAR	Juridinių asmenų registro kodas	Juridiniu asmenu registro kodas	JAR (kodas)		^\d1\d7\d1$
LT	VAT	LT_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^LT\d1\d7\d1(\d3)?$

LU	NBR	LU_RCS	Numéro registre de commerce et des sociétés	Numero registre de commerce et des societes	(numéro) RCS	(numero) RCS	^[B-Z]\d+$
LU	VAT	LU_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^LU\d6\d2$

LV	NBR	LV_URN	Uzņēmuma reģistrācijas numur	Uznemuma registracijas numurs	URN		^[1-9]1\d7$
LV	VAT	LV_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^LV4\d1[1-9]1\d7\d1$

MT	NBR	MT_CRN	Company Registration Number		CRN		^(C\|P\|SV\|SE\|LP\|SO\|NF\|RPF\|FD\|G)\d5$
MT	VAT	MT_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^MT\d6\d2$

NL	NBR	NL_KVK	Kamer van Koophandel nummer		KVK (nummer)		^\d8$
NL	TIN	NL_RSIN	Rechtspersonen en Samenwerkingsverbanden Informatie Nummer		RSIN (nummer)		^[1-9]1\d8$
NL	VAT	NL_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^NL[1-9]1\d8$

NO	NBR/TIN	NO_ORG	Organisasjonsnummer		ORG(-nummer)		^\d9$
NO	VAT	NO_ORG_MVA	Organisasjonsnummer (Merverdiavgift)		ORG(-nummer) Mva.		^\d9\sMVA$

PL	NBR	PL_KRS	Numer w krajowym rejestrze sądowym	Numer w krajowym rejestrze sadowym	KRS (numer)		^KRS\d10$
PL	NBR	PL_REGON	Numer identyfikacyjny rejestru gospodarki narodowe		(numer) REGON		^(\d9\|\d14)$
PL	TIN	PL_NIP	Numer identyfikacji podatkowej		NIP		^\d3\d6\d1$
PL	VAT	PL_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^PL\d3\d6\d1$

PT	NBR/TIN	PT_NIPC	Número de Identificação de Pessoa Coletiva (aka Número de Identificação Fiscal)	Numero de Identificacao de Pessoa Coletiva (aka Numero de Identificacao Fiscal)	NIPC		^PT5\d7\d1$
PT	VAT	PT_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^PT5\d7\d1$

RO	NBR	RO_NRC	Numărul de ordine în registrul comerţului	Numarul de ordine in registrul comertului	NRC		^J[0-5]1[0-9]1/\d4/\d6$
RO	TIN	RO_CUI	Codul Unic de Înregistrare	Codul Unic de Inregistrare	CUI		^[1-9]\d8\d1$
RO	VAT	RO_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^RO[1-9]\d8\d1$

SE	NBR	SE_ORG	Organisationsnummer		ORG(-nummer)		^\d2[2-9]1\d3-?\d4$
SE	VAT	SE_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^SE\d2[2-9]1\d3\d4(\d2)?$

SI	NBR	SI_MAT	Matična številka	Maticana stevilka	MAT (št.)	MAT (st.)	^\d10$
SI	TIN	SI_DAV	Davčna številka	Davcna stevilka	DAV (št.)	DAV (st.)	^\d7\d1$
SI	VAT	SI_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^SI\d7\d1$

SK	NBR	SK_ICO	Identifikačné číslo organizácie	Identifikacne cislo organizacie	IČO	ICO	^[1-9]1\d7$
SK	TIN	SK_DIC	Daňové identifikačné číslo	Danove identifikacne cislo	DIČ	DIC	^[1-9]1\d8\d1$
SK	VAT	SK_EU_VAT_ID	European Union Value-added Tax Identification Number		EU VAT ID (number)		^SK[1-9]1\d8\d1$

XI	NBR	XI_CRN	Company Registration Number		CRN		^((AC\|CE\|CS\|FC\|FE\|GE\|GS\|IC\|LP\|NC\|NF\|NI\|NL\|NO\|NP\|OC\|OE\|PC\|R0\|RC\|SA\|SC\|SE\|SF\|SG\|SI\|SL\|SO\|SR\|SZ\|ZC\|\d2)\d6)\|((IP\|SP\|RS)[A-Z\d]6)\|(SL\d5[\dA])$
XI	TIN	XI_UTR	Unique Taxpayer Reference		UTR		^\d10$
XI	VAT	XI_VAT_REG	Value-added Tax Registration Number		VAT Reg. (number)		^(XI\|GB)\d9(\d3)?$

-	IBR	GLEIF_LEI	Legal Entity Identifier		LEI		^[A-Z0-9]18[0-9]2$
-	IBR	EU_EORI	Economic Operators' Registration and Identification Number		EORI (number)		^[A-Z]2[0-9A-Z]+$

3 REFERENCES

3.1 NORMATIVE REFERENCES

ISO/IEC 6523-1:2023
ISO/IEC 6523-2:1998; note that it is expected to be replaced by ISO/IEC DIS 6523-2 in the coming months.
ISO/IEC 7064:2003

3.2 NON-NORMATIVE REFERENCES

This section is non-normative

BPDM website (accessed 2025-04-02)
standard library (accessed 2025-04-02)

3.3 REFERENCE IMPLEMENTATIONS

This section is non-normative

ANNEXES

FIGURES

This section is non-normative

Intentionally left blank.

TABLES

This section is non-normative

Intentionally left blank.

Legal

The term "legally secure" describes a state of compliance with legal requirements that ensures clarity, reliability, and protection from legal disputes. It guarantees that actions, documents, or agreements are structured in a way that minimizes legal risks and can withstand legal scrutiny. ↩
compare to ISO/IEC 6523-1:2023 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
compare to ISO/IEC 6523-2:1998 ↩
Note that PlantUml is used for the conceptual UML diagrams in this document (A = abstract class; green E = entity; C = class; red E = enumeration). An abstract class has no actual representation in the OpenAPI implementation. An entity is usually implemented by an own OpenAPI controller with resources and usually is the root in a payload, while a class is a sub node in the payload. An enumeration is a set of predefined values. ↩
These types always imply a business partner which means that legal entity, site, and address are types of business partners. ↩
Note that there is currently a debate as to whether a site is only a consolidation of addresses (BPNA), with all addresses being equally ranked, since a "main" address can't always be defined at this point in time. This may lead to changes in the next update of this standard. ↩ ↩² ↩³
Note that conceptually there is only one issuing organization allowed. As the Business Partner Number shall be also used in other data spaces (than Catena-X) that are based on this standard, we might either have a decentralized approach, which means multiple issuing organizations will need to synchronize their issuance processes, or stay with a strictly centralized approach, which means one issuing organization will issue Business Partner Numbers for all data spaces that are based on this standard. For the former approach it might be required to also encode the issuing organization into the Business Partner Number. Note that the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) of the GLEIF organization (another organization identification scheme based on ISO/IEC 6523) successfully implemented the decentralized approach. This decision may lead to changes in the next update of this standard. ↩

FOR WHOM IS THE STANDARD DESIGNED​

COMPARISON WITH THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE STANDARD​

ABSTRACT​

1. INTRODUCTION​

1.1 AUDIENCE & SCOPE​

1.2 CONTEXT AND ARCHITECTURE FIT​

1.3 CONFORMANCE AND PROOF OF CONFORMITY​

1.4 EXAMPLES​

1.5 TERMINOLOGY​

1.5.1 GENERAL​

1.5.2 DATA MODEL​

1.5.2.1 BUSINESS PARTNER​

1.5.2.2 LEGAL ENTITY​

1.5.2.3 SITE​

1.5.2.4 ADDRESS​

1.5.2.5 IDENTIFIER TYPE​

1.5.2.1 IDENTIFIER TYPE DETAILS​

2 BUSINESS PARTNER NUMBER​

2.1 ISSUANCE PROCESS​

2.2 STRUCTURE​

2.3 LIFECYCLE​

2.4 RELATIONS​

2.5 IDENTIFIER TYPES​

3 REFERENCES​

3.1 NORMATIVE REFERENCES​

3.2 NON-NORMATIVE REFERENCES​

3.3 REFERENCE IMPLEMENTATIONS​

ANNEXES​

FIGURES​

TABLES​

Legal​

Footnotes​

FOR WHOM IS THE STANDARD DESIGNED

COMPARISON WITH THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE STANDARD

ABSTRACT

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 AUDIENCE & SCOPE

1.2 CONTEXT AND ARCHITECTURE FIT

1.3 CONFORMANCE AND PROOF OF CONFORMITY

1.4 EXAMPLES

1.5 TERMINOLOGY

1.5.1 GENERAL

1.5.2 DATA MODEL

1.5.2.1 BUSINESS PARTNER

1.5.2.2 LEGAL ENTITY

1.5.2.3 SITE

1.5.2.4 ADDRESS

1.5.2.5 IDENTIFIER TYPE

1.5.2.1 IDENTIFIER TYPE DETAILS

2 BUSINESS PARTNER NUMBER

2.1 ISSUANCE PROCESS

2.2 STRUCTURE

2.3 LIFECYCLE

2.4 RELATIONS

2.5 IDENTIFIER TYPES

3 REFERENCES

3.1 NORMATIVE REFERENCES

3.2 NON-NORMATIVE REFERENCES

3.3 REFERENCE IMPLEMENTATIONS

ANNEXES

FIGURES

TABLES

Legal

Footnotes