EU Business Data Search

Search 21 official European business data sources in a single API call — financial institution registries (ECB, EBA, EIOPA, ESMA), capital markets reference data, Eurostat trade and economy statistics, TARIC customs tariff, EU sanctions list, and more. All data comes directly from European regulatory databases through the SIP Public Data Gateway.

What is EU Business Data Search?

EU Business Data Search is an Apify Actor that queries official European Union data sources for business, financial institution, and trade information. Instead of navigating dozens of separate EU portals (ECB, ESMA, EBA, EIOPA, Eurostat, EUR-Lex), you search them all at once with a single keyword.

The Actor uses the SIP Public Data Gateway — a unified API layer that normalizes responses from 21 EU business-related data products into a consistent format. No browser automation, no scraping — just fast, reliable HTTPS API calls.

Why use EU Business Data Search?

• One search, 21 sources — Query ECB supervised banks, ESMA investment firms, EBA authorized institutions, EIOPA insurance registers, and Eurostat statistics in parallel
• Official government data — All sources are public EU regulatory databases, not scraped web pages
• Structured JSON output — Every record includes source metadata (_product_id, _source, _search_term, _collected_at) for traceability
• Category toggles — Enable or disable institution registries, capital markets, trade data, and governance sources to focus your search
• No API keys needed for EU sources — SIP handles authentication with upstream EU APIs; you only need one SIP API key

Use cases

Who	What
Compliance teams	KYB checks against ECB/EBA/ESMA authorized entity registries and EU sanctions list
Financial analysts	Cross-reference banks and investment firms across ECB, EBA, EIOPA, and ESMA registers
Trade & customs professionals	Look up TARIC tariff codes, Eurostat trade flows, and customs classifications
Research firms	Access Eurostat business demographics, labor market data, and CORDIS research funding
RegTech companies	Bulk-query EU regulatory registries for entity verification and monitoring

What data can EU Business Data Search extract?

Source	Data type	Example fields
ECB supervised banks	Significant/less-significant institutions	name, country, lei_code, type
ECB MFI list	Monetary financial institutions	name, country, category, head_office
EBA credit institutions	Authorized credit institutions	name, country, competent_authority
EBA payment institutions	Authorized payment service providers	name, country, authorization_status
EIOPA insurance register	Insurance undertakings across EU	name, country, nca, type_of_undertaking
EIOPA IORP register	Occupational pension funds	name, country, nca
ESMA investment firms	Authorized investment firms	name, country, services
ESMA FIRDS	Financial instrument reference data	instrument_name, isin, venue
ESMA DVCAP	Double volume cap data	venue, instrument, volume
Eurostat trade	EU trade statistics	reporter, partner, product, trade_value
Eurostat business demographics	Enterprise births, deaths, survival	country, indicator, value
TARIC customs	Integrated tariff of the EU	goods_nomenclature, description, duty_rate
EU sanctions list	Consolidated sanctions	name, entity_type, program, listed_on
Transparency Register	EU lobby organizations	name, category, registration_date
VIES VAT	VAT number validation	country_code, vat_number, valid, name

How to search EU business data

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console
2. Enter one or more search terms (e.g. "Deutsche Bank", "Allianz", "BASF")
3. Choose which data categories to include (institution registries are on by default)
4. Click Start — the Actor queries all enabled sources in parallel
5. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the dataset tab

Example input

{
  "searchTerms": ["Deutsche Bank", "Allianz"],
  "includeInstitutionRegistries": true,
  "includeCapitalMarkets": true,
  "includeTradeEconomy": false,
  "includeGovernanceCompliance": false,
  "maxResultsPerSource": 50
}

Output

Each row is a record from an EU data source, enriched with metadata:

{
  "name": "Deutsche Bank AG",
  "country": "DE",
  "lei_code": "7LTWFZYICNSX8D621K86",
  "type": "Significant supervised entity",
  "_product_id": "eu_ecb_supervised_banks",
  "_source": "ecb_supervised_banks",
  "_search_term": "Deutsche Bank",
  "_collected_at": "2026-04-08T12:00:00Z"
}

Results can be exported in JSON, CSV, XML, Excel, or HTML formats directly from the Apify dataset.

How much does it cost to search EU business data?

The Actor charges per data record returned using Apify's pay-per-event model. Typical costs:

• Small search (1 term, default sources): ~$0.05–0.15 depending on matches
• Bulk research (10 terms, all 21 sources): ~$0.50–2.00

Platform compute costs are minimal since the Actor makes lightweight API calls with no browser overhead. You can set maxResultsPerSource to control the volume and cost per run.

Data sources (21 EU products)

Category	Sources	Count
Institution registries	EBA credit institutions, EBA payment institutions, ECB supervised banks (SIs), ECB less-significant institutions (LSIs), ECB MFI list, EIOPA insurance register, EIOPA IORP register, ESMA investment firms	8
Capital markets	ESMA DVCAP, ESMA FIRDS, ESMA FITRS, ESMA SSR exempted shares	4
Trade & economy	TARIC customs tariff, Eurostat trade, Eurostat business demographics, Eurostat labor market	4
Governance & compliance	CORDIS research projects, EU sanctions consolidated list, Transparency Register, GLEIF OC mapping, VIES VAT validation	5

FAQ

Is it legal to access this data? Yes. All 21 data sources are official public EU databases provided by European regulatory agencies (ECB, EBA, EIOPA, ESMA, Eurostat, European Commission). The Actor accesses them through authorized API endpoints.

Do I need separate API keys for each EU source? No. The SIP gateway handles authentication with upstream EU APIs. You only need one SIP API key, configured as an Actor environment variable.

What about VIES VAT validation? VIES is a lookup service, not a search engine. Use a specific VAT number as the search term (e.g. "DE123456789") with the Governance & Compliance toggle enabled. Generic keywords will return no VIES results.

How current is the data? Data freshness depends on each source's update cycle. ECB/EBA/EIOPA registries update daily to weekly. Eurostat statistics are typically quarterly. The SIP gateway caches results briefly for performance but always fetches from official upstream APIs.

Can I integrate results into my application? Yes. Use the Apify API to trigger runs programmatically and retrieve results as JSON. The Actor is also available as an MCP tool for AI agent workflows.

Use as MCP Tool (AI Agent Integration)

This Actor works as an MCP tool — AI agents (Claude, GPT, Cursor) can discover and run it automatically.

Quick setup (Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code)

Add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then ask your AI: "Search for Deutsche Bank in EU business registries"

Direct API call

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("lentic_clockss/eu-business-data-search").call(
    run_input={"searchTerms": ["Deutsche Bank"], "maxResultsPerSource": 50}
)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Other Data API Actors

• US Business Entity Data API
• UK Government Data API
• Switzerland Government Data API
• Taiwan Government Data API