11. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium for storing executable instructions for controlling a computer to perform automated standardization of distinct names in a transactions processing database to associate said distinct names with standard names of particular entities, comprising instructions for: creating a characteristic feature vector for features of a distinct name that are non-standard features of a standard name of an entity stored in said database, said non-standard features creating ambiguity between the distinct name and the standard name; processing said distinct name using a regular expression rule selected based upon the feature vector of said distinct name to cleanse said distinct name by removing the non-standard features of the feature vector from the distinct name to convert the distinct name to a standard name format; comparing the standard name format to standard names of entities in the database to determine possible matches; and identifying based upon said comparing the distinct name as corresponding to the standard name of the entity.
11. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium for storing executable instructions for controlling a computer to perform automated standardization of distinct names in a transactions processing database to associate said distinct names with standard names of particular entities, comprising instructions for: creating a characteristic feature vector for features of a distinct name that are non-standard features of a standard name of an entity stored in said database, said non-standard features creating ambiguity between the distinct name and the standard name; processing said distinct name using a regular expression rule selected based upon the feature vector of said distinct name to cleanse said distinct name by removing the non-standard features of the feature vector from the distinct name to convert the distinct name to a standard name format; comparing the standard name format to standard names of entities in the database to determine possible matches; and identifying based upon said comparing the distinct name as corresponding to the standard name of the entity. 12. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11 further comprising instructions for forming a plurality of regular expression rules, each rule being formed to correspond to a different predetermined set of non-standard features, and said processing comprising processing said distinct name using a selected regular expression rule tailored to the non-standard feature vector of said distinct name.