Methodology

Trust Scoring Methodology

Every TrustRegistry verification returns three scores and a list of risk flags. Together they tell you who the business is, how confident we are in the underlying data, and what observable risk indicators are present — so you can route, auto-approve, or escalate inside underwriting, KYB, onboarding, and compliance workflows.

The three scores at a glance

Trust Score

Overall trust assessment. Higher is better.

90–100Excellent
80–89Strong
70–79Moderate
60–69Elevated Risk
<60High Risk

Confidence Score

Completeness and quality of the underlying data. Higher is better.

90–100High confidence
75–89Good confidence
50–74Moderate confidence
<50Limited confidence

Risk Score

Observed risk indicators. Lower is better.

0–20Low Risk
21–40Moderate Risk
41–60Elevated Risk
61+High Risk

Trust Score

The Trust Score (0–100, higher is better) is the overall trust assessment for the business. It combines registration status, entity age, data completeness, and any observed risk indicators into a single number suitable for routing decisions.

90–100 Excellent — safe to auto-approve in most KYB workflows.
80–89 Strong — typically clears underwriting with standard checks.
70–79 Moderate — consider supplemental verification.
60–69 Elevated Risk — route to manual review.
<60 High Risk — recommended decline or hard-stop until additional documentation is collected.

Confidence Score

The Confidence Score (0–100, higher is better) measures the completeness and quality of the underlying registry data backing the response — not the riskiness of the business. A dissolved entity can still have 100 confidence if the dissolution itself is well-documented.

90–100 High confidence — exact match, complete record.
75–89 Good confidence — minor fields missing or normalized.
50–74 Moderate confidence — fuzzy match or partial record.
<50 Limited confidence — treat as advisory only.

Risk Score

The Risk Score (0–100, lower is better) summarizes the observed risk indicators on the record — status anomalies, entity age, missing identifiers, registry signals, and similar factors. Use it as a one-number rollup of risk_flags.

0–20 Low Risk
21–40 Moderate Risk
41–60 Elevated Risk
61+ High Risk

Risk Flags

risk_flags is an array of machine-readable strings explaining why a Risk Score is elevated. An empty array ([]) means no observed risk indicators. Use these directly in your decisioning rules.

Flag	Meaning
inactive_status	Business is not currently active in the source registry.
dissolved_entity	Entity has been dissolved or terminated by the state.
missing_registration_number	Registration information is incomplete in the source record.
missing_formation_date	Formation date is not present on the registry record.
recently_formed	Entity was formed within the last 90 days — higher early-stage risk.
name_mismatch	Submitted name did not exactly match the canonical registry name.
fuzzy_match_only	No exact match found; result is from a fuzzy name match.
unsupported_state	State coverage is not live yet — no verification performed.

Example: clean business

200 OK · low-risk

{
  "business_name": "ABC Roofing LLC",
  "state": "TX",
  "status": "active",
  "formation_date": "2017-04-18",
  "trust_score": 92,
  "confidence_score": 100,
  "risk_score": 8,
  "risk_flags": []
}

Example: elevated risk

200 OK · high-risk

{
  "business_name": "Shellco Holdings LLC",
  "state": "TX",
  "status": "inactive",
  "formation_date": "2024-11-02",
  "trust_score": 41,
  "confidence_score": 78,
  "risk_score": 64,
  "risk_flags": [
    "inactive_status",
    "recently_formed",
    "missing_registration_number"
  ]
}

Suggested decisioning

A common starting point for production rules:

Auto-approve when trust_score ≥ 80, confidence_score ≥ 75, and risk_flags is empty.
Manual review when trust_score 60–79 or any flag is present.
Decline / hard-stop when trust_score < 60 or status is inactive / dissolved.

These are suggestions, not guarantees. Tune thresholds to your portfolio and risk appetite.