Dun and Bradstreet UK vs Bureau van Dijk (FAME): Enterprise Data Compared

Quick verdict

Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) and Bureau van Dijk (BvD, now part of Moody’s Analytics as the FAME/Orbis family) are the two platforms most often shortlisted when UK enterprise buyers need data that goes beyond a credit score: global ownership maps, deep financial histories, supply chain risk, M&A due diligence, or multi-jurisdictional KYC. They share a high price point and enterprise-only sales motion, but they are built for different primary workflows. D&B’s strength is entity resolution at global scale through the DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) number, risk analytics for supply chain and credit teams, and sales intelligence through D&B Hoovers. FAME/Orbis’s strength is financial depth: 21 million UK and Irish companies with detailed account histories, M&A event tracking, and corporate family trees that serve investment banking, restructuring, and academic research. For a UK procurement or supply chain risk team vetting global suppliers: D&B. For an M&A advisory or restructuring team doing financial analysis on UK targets: FAME/Orbis.

Company background

Dun and Bradstreet UK

Dun and Bradstreet is one of the oldest commercial data companies in the world, founded in 1841 in the United States. It is listed on the NYSE (ticker: DNB) and operates in over 200 markets. Its core innovation was the DUNS number, a nine-digit identifier assigned to businesses globally and used as a standard identifier in US government contracting, EU procurement, supply chain management, and trade finance. D&B holds records on over 300 million business entities globally.

UK operations run from London. Products for UK buyers include D&B Credit (commercial credit assessment), D&B Finance Analytics (accounts payable and receivable risk intelligence), D&B Hoovers (sales prospecting and company intelligence), and D&B Risk Analytics (supply chain risk platform). D&B’s UK pricing reflects enterprise positioning: entry-level contracts from approximately USD 10,000 (GBP 7,900) per year, with enterprise bundles typically USD 25,000 to USD 50,000 (GBP 19,700 to GBP 39,400) per year or more [VERIFY: confirm current D&B UK enterprise pricing from dnb.co.uk or procurement documents].

Bureau van Dijk (FAME / Orbis)

Bureau van Dijk is a Brussels-origin data company that was acquired by Moody’s Corporation in 2017 for approximately USD 3.27 billion (GBP 2.56 billion). It is now a Moody’s Analytics company. BvD’s flagship global product is Orbis, which claims coverage of over 400 million companies. FAME is the UK and Ireland-specific product within the Orbis family, covering over 21 million UK and Irish companies with detailed financial account histories, corporate family trees, ownership data, and M&A event tracking.

FAME has particular penetration in UK academic institutions (licensed through JISC Collections), investment banking, restructuring advisory, and any research or analytical workflow requiring multiple years of structured financial account data in a comparable format. Enterprise pricing for FAME runs from approximately GBP 31,000 (USD 39,100) per year for up to five named users, scaling to GBP 75,000 (USD 94,500) for up to 20 named users [VERIFY: confirm current FAME/Orbis pricing from Moody’s Analytics or JISC documentation]; commercial enterprise pricing is quoted separately.

Coverage and data depth

What D&B covers. D&B’s global database of 300 million business entities is linked by DUNS numbers, which allows entity resolution across jurisdictions even when company names are inconsistently spelled or subsidiaries are registered under different trading names. The UK portion includes Companies House data enriched with D&B’s proprietary risk analytics. D&B Credit provides commercial credit scores and payment behaviour data. D&B’s supply chain risk product tracks financial stability, ESG indicators, and operational risk signals across global supplier networks. D&B Hoovers adds firmographic data (revenue estimates, employee counts, industry classifications, technology footprint) for sales and business development use cases.

What FAME/Orbis covers. FAME’s defining characteristic is financial depth. It aggregates Companies House filings into structured, machine-readable annual account data for over 21 million UK entities, including active, dormant, and dissolved companies. Accounts are available for up to 25 years on older companies. FAME includes corporate family trees showing subsidiary and parent relationships across jurisdictions, M&A event tracking (acquisition announcements, deal values, advisers where available), industry benchmarking tools, and news integration. Orbis, the global product, extends similar coverage across 400 million companies in 220 countries.

The coverage gap between the two is directional: D&B has better risk analytics and entity resolution at global scale; FAME has better financial account depth and historical data for UK and European entities.

DUNS number: D&B’s anchor asset

The DUNS number is free to claim for a UK company and takes up to 30 business days to issue. Once assigned, it is permanent and persists through name changes, address moves, and corporate restructuring. The DUNS number is required for US government contracting, EU TARIC and procurement, and is used by major ERP systems (SAP, Oracle) as a business identifier.

For UK buyers running global supply chain risk management, the DUNS number is the operational mechanism that allows D&B’s entity resolution to work: when a UK supplier is acquired by a new parent, D&B updates the DUNS linkage to the new family tree. No comparable universal identifier standard exists within FAME/Orbis (though BvD assigns its own BvD ID numbers, which are not interoperable with systems outside the BvD ecosystem).

Financial data depth: FAME’s anchor asset

FAME’s position as the primary tool for UK M&A due diligence and restructuring rests on its financial data granularity. A FAME record for a UK company with full filings includes:

• Profit and loss account (revenue, EBITDA, operating profit, exceptional items) for up to 25 years.
• Balance sheet (fixed assets, current assets, creditors, shareholders’ funds) for the same period.
• Cash flow statement where filed.
• Key ratios pre-calculated (gearing, return on capital, interest cover, current ratio).
• Peer comparisons against industry averages and named competitor groups.
• Corporate family tree showing immediate and ultimate parent, subsidiaries, and associates across jurisdictions.
• M&A events where the company has been an acquirer or target.
• News and press releases integrated from external sources.

D&B’s financial data is less granular on UK SMEs in particular: D&B estimates revenues and employee counts for companies that do not publicly file detailed accounts, which is useful for screening but less reliable than the filed data FAME extracts from Companies House. For a UK company that files full statutory accounts, FAME’s extracted data is more complete and more auditable than D&B’s model-estimated equivalent.

PSC and UBO chain depth

Both platforms claim superior UBO analysis, and the real picture is more layered than the marketing suggests.

D&B. Entity resolution through DUNS number linkage allows D&B to connect a UK subsidiary to its intermediate parents and ultimate parent across jurisdictions. The quality of the linkage depends on how consistently contributing entities have registered with D&B in each jurisdiction. For publicly listed companies and major multinationals, D&B’s family tree is reliable. For privately held SME structures with complex international intermediaries, the linkage may be incomplete.

FAME/Orbis. The corporate family tree in FAME is compiled from official filings (Companies House for the UK, equivalent registries for foreign jurisdictions), annual reports, and BvD’s own research team. For the UK domestic layer, FAME’s PSC data from Companies House is augmented with BvD’s independent ownership research. The Orbis product provides the full global ownership chain, tracing from a UK subsidiary through intermediate holdcos to the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) as far as disclosed. The FATF gap applies equally: if the UBO sits behind a bearer share structure or a trust in a non-disclosure jurisdiction, no commercial database including Orbis closes that gap completely.

The ECCTA identity verification mandate, mandatory from November 2025 for new directors and PSCs, will improve the quality of the Companies House PSC data that both D&B and FAME source from. The improvement is automatic and benefits both platforms.

Enterprise pricing model

Both platforms are enterprise-only. Neither publishes a self-serve price. Both require a sales conversation, scoping, and typically a multi-year contract.

D&B. Entry-level annual contracts from approximately USD 10,000 (GBP 7,900) for basic credit and firmographic access. Enterprise bundles for supply chain risk, full credit analytics, and D&B Finance Analytics typically run USD 25,000 to USD 50,000 (GBP 19,700 to GBP 39,400) per year. Minimum contract value for UK G-Cloud procurement is GBP 1,500 for a 12-month period; consulting and support is GBP 1,280 per onsite visit. Annual price increases up to 6% are contractually permitted.

FAME. Named-user pricing: approximately GBP 31,000 (USD 39,100) for up to 5 named users, GBP 75,000 (USD 94,500) for up to 20 named users [VERIFY: based on 2022 UK public sector documentation; confirm current pricing with Moody’s Analytics or JISC]. Academic institution pricing through JISC Collections may differ. Full access free trials are available (excluding the export function). The minimum contract period is typically 12 months.

Use case fit

Best-fit buyer profiles

Persona 1: UK bank or corporate treasury running global supplier risk

D&B is the dominant platform for supply chain risk management. The DUNS number linkage across 300 million entities, the financial stability scores, ESG indicators, and the D&B Risk Analytics supply chain platform are built specifically for this workflow. A UK corporate running 500 tier-1 and tier-2 global suppliers through a risk assessment framework will find D&B’s coverage and entity resolution more operationally useful than FAME’s financial depth.

Persona 2: Investment bank or restructuring advisor doing UK M&A or distressed analysis

FAME is the industry standard. The 25-year financial account history, the corporate family tree, the peer benchmarking, and the M&A event tracking directly serve the information requirements of a transaction or restructuring file. Many UK investment banking teams access FAME via their firm’s academic or enterprise licence. When a UK company is being valued or restructured, the quality of the historical account data from FAME is directly relevant to the model assumptions; D&B’s estimated revenue figures are insufficient for investment-grade analysis on private companies.

Persona 3: UK procurement team doing supplier due diligence on 50 critical suppliers

Both platforms are relevant. If the 50 suppliers include a large number of non-UK entities, D&B’s global coverage and DUNS linkage are more practically useful. If the 50 suppliers are primarily UK companies and the buyer needs financial trend analysis (is this supplier financially deteriorating?), FAME’s filed-account depth gives better input to a financial health assessment. Many large UK corporates with dedicated procurement risk functions hold both subscriptions.

Persona 4: Foreign private equity fund evaluating a UK portfolio company acquisition

FAME/Orbis for the financial analysis (target’s UK accounts history, peer comparison, ownership chain from Companies House PSC to intermediate parents). D&B as a secondary check for supply chain exposure and US counterpart risk if the PE fund also has US operations. In most UK-focused PE due diligence settings, FAME is the data room provider and D&B is optional.

Compliance posture

UK GDPR and ICO. Both D&B and FAME process personal data on company directors and beneficial owners. Both are subject to UK GDPR and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Review the data processing agreement before contracting; the controller-processor allocation and cross-border data transfer provisions require specific attention if your internal systems are hosted outside the UK.

FATF and beneficial ownership gaps. Neither D&B nor FAME can close the beneficial ownership gap for entities in non-disclosure jurisdictions (bearer shares, certain trust structures, non-cooperative jurisdictions on the FATF list). Both platforms surface what is filed and publicly available. For enhanced due diligence under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, buyers may need to supplement with primary research, in-country agents, or court filings in the relevant jurisdiction.

FRC and financial data. The Financial Reporting Council sets UK accounting standards. FAME’s financial data is sourced from Companies House filings that have been prepared under FRC-issued standards (FRS 102, IFRS for UK-listed entities, FRS 105 for micro-entities). The quality of the filed data drives the quality of the FAME extract; the FRC’s standard-setting role is thus relevant to how much an analyst can rely on the numbers without adjustment.

Comparison matrix

What businessdataguide does

businessdataguide is an editorial publication for B2B compliance data buyers. We compare platforms without being paid to favour D&B or Moody’s Analytics. We are a publisher, not a vendor and not a procurement advisor. For the broader UK data supplier market view, see the UK company data suppliers buyer’s guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is a DUNS number required for UK companies?

No, not domestically. A DUNS number is mandatory for US federal government contracting and required by some EU procurement frameworks and large multinational supply chains. UK companies that want to bid for US government contracts or join a major corporate’s supplier network should claim a DUNS number (free, up to 30 business days). For UK domestic credit and compliance purposes, a DUNS number is not required.

Can FAME be accessed without an enterprise contract?

Not as a standard commercial product. FAME requires a subscription contract. UK academic institutions can access FAME through JISC Collections. For one-off research needs, some universities provide alumni or external researcher access through their libraries, though terms vary by institution.

How does D&B estimate revenue for private UK companies?

D&B uses a predictive model that draws on industry sector data, employee count (often sourced from job posting and LinkedIn data), registered office postcode, Companies House accounts where available, and D&B’s own contributor network inputs. For UK companies with filed accounts, D&B cross-references its estimate against the filed figure. For micro-entities filing abbreviated accounts (which do not include a P&L), D&B’s estimate is model-based. Treat estimated revenue figures as screening data rather than investment-grade inputs.

Does FAME cover Scottish and Northern Irish companies?

Yes. FAME covers companies registered at Companies House (England and Wales), Companies House Scotland, and Companies Registry Northern Ireland. The filing standards vary slightly (Scottish companies have different filing deadlines for some filings), but FAME aims to cover all UK-registered entities in the Orbis database.

What happens to FAME pricing after Moody’s acquisition?

The Moody’s Analytics acquisition of Bureau van Dijk (2017) has not resulted in dramatic pricing changes in the UK market, but pricing has increased over successive renewal cycles as is standard for enterprise data licences. Institutional buyers should budget for annual price increases when modelling total cost of ownership over a 3-5 year horizon. JISC-negotiated pricing for UK academic institutions is typically more favourable than commercial rates.