Alacra is piloting a full-scale version of its Resolve matching and cross-referencing service for publicly available entity identifiers, following the introduction of an entry level version of the service back in August.

While the entry level version of Resolve allows searches of close to 5 million legal entities in the Alacra Legal Entity Directory on a one-by-one entity basis, the full-scale service will allow files of entities to be uploaded and matched where possible. Like Alacra’s Concordance service, Resolve will match and cross reference legal entities using software algorithms, but Resolve is a software only service and does not go on to use the company’s research team to manage missing data, exceptions and remediation as Concordance does.

Alan Samuels, vice president of reference data at Alacra, explains: “Resolve is a large opportunity for smaller financial institutions. It gives clients access to the software part of our complete solution for matching entities. This means that if matches aren’t exact, it is up to the user, rather than Alacra, to work on this.”

Alacra expects financial institutions that are smaller than tier one and two institutions to find Resolve most useful, perhaps using the tool as a means of incrementally improving and validating their data management processes.

Proof of concept projects bear this out, with a European bank operating a large central data repository using Resolve to identify entity records that are missing information such as Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) or Global Intermediary Identification Numbers (GIINs) required by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca). By matching internal and Alacra entity data, the bank can validate the quality of its data. Similarly, a proof of concept project being carried out by a small firm in Asia is designed to make sure the firm is compliant with Fatca GIIN reporting.

The entry level version of Resolve is free to use on Alacra’s website, but the full-scale version will carry a cost when it is formally introduced to the market in the first quarter of 2016.