Patent ID: 8166048

Claim:
A system for maintaining master reference data relating to entities, said system comprising: a master reference data storage for storing a plurality of master reference data sets based on reference data sets from different data storages, wherein each reference data set identifies a particular entity, wherein each of a plurality of the entities is identified by a plurality of reference data sets stored in a plurality of the data storages, wherein a master reference data set for a particular entity represents a most reliable reference data set stored for the particular entity in any one of the different data storages; and a master reference manager for receiving a reference data set in real time, updating the master reference data set in real time based on the received reference data set, and maintaining content metadata for the master reference data set, wherein the master reference manager includes a trust framework for updating the master reference data set in real time, wherein the master reference data set includes a set of data fields, wherein updating the master reference data set comprises changing a current value of a data field of the master reference data set when the reference data set includes another value for the data field that is more reliable than the current value of the data field.