Verify a foreign buyer in three tiers: confirm legal existence in the official public register, test financial signals and sanctions exposure, then observe behavioural evidence against a six-point pre-sale checklist.
KEY INSIGHT
Verify a foreign buyer in three tiers: confirm legal existence in the official public register, test financial signals and sanctions exposure, then observe behavioural evidence against a six-point pre-sale checklist.
| Check | Data source | Cost | What it proves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal existence | Official state register | Free | Company exists and is not dissolved |
| Beneficial ownership | UBO register (EU BORIS, US FinCEN BOI) | Free or low fee | Who actually controls the entity |
| VAT / tax status | EU VIES, national tax authority | Free | Operating business with live tax number |
| Sanctions exposure | OFAC SDN, EU, UK HMT, UN lists | Free | Not prohibited counterparty |
| Insolvency status | National insolvency register, EU IRI | Free | Not in proceedings |
| Financial signal | Filed accounts or credit bureau | Free or paid | Going-concern solvency |
| Trade references | Two existing customers, ideally your sector | Free | Payment behaviour in practice |
| Trade credit insurer | Buyer limit decision from your insurer | Paid | Independent risk opinion |
TEN-MINUTE CHECK
10 min
Fast-scan: the ten-minute pre-sale verification
FIRST ORDER
USD 80,000
A sales director holding a USD 80,000 first order from a new foreign buyer has ten minutes and a keyboard.
THREE TIERS
3
Verify a foreign buyer in three tiers
Tier 1: does the company actually exist
Every serious jurisdiction runs a free public register where you can look up a company by name or registration number. The fields vary, but the minimum answer you need is four lines: legal name, registration number, legal status (active, struck off, dissolved, in insolvency), and registered address. If the buyer has given you a name that does not appear, the conversation is over. The table below is the tier 1 list we use at InterStation for first-pass verification. Every URL is free for the basic search. Some charge a small fee to pull a full document, which is worth paying when the order justifies it.| Jurisdiction | Register | URL | Basic search | Delivers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Handelsregister | handelsregister.de | Free | Name, HRB number, status, officers |
| United Kingdom | Companies House | find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk | Free | Full filings, accounts, officers, PSC |
| Ireland | CRO | core.cro.ie | Free search, paid docs | Name, number, status, filings |
| Netherlands | KvK Handelsregister | kvk.nl/en | Free basics | KvK number, trade name, SBI code |
| Italy | Registro delle Imprese | registroimprese.it | Paid | Visura with officers, capital, PEC |
| Spain | Registro Mercantil Central | rmc.es | Paid | CIF, denominacion, estado |
| France | INSEE SIRENE | sirene.fr | Free | SIREN, SIRET, NAF code, status |
| Belgium | Crossroads Bank for Enterprises | kbopub.economie.fgov.be | Free | KBO number, activities, status |
| Poland | KRS | ems.ms.gov.pl | Free | KRS number, representatives, capital |
| United States | Secretary of State (per state) | varies | Free, varies | Entity name, status, registered agent |
| Canada | Corporations Canada + provincial | ised-isde.canada.ca | Free | Federal BN, officers, status |
| Australia | ASIC | asic.gov.au | Free basic | ACN, name, status, officeholders |
| Singapore | ACRA BizFile | bizfile.gov.sg | Free basic | UEN, status, activities |
| Hong Kong | Companies Registry | cr.gov.hk | Paid per doc | CR number, directors, charges |
| UAE | DED (mainland) or free-zone authority (DIFC, ADGM, JAFZA) | varies | Free basic | Licence number, activity, status |
| China | National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System | gsxt.gov.cn | Free | USCC, legal representative, status |
| Japan | Houmu-kyoku commercial register | www1.touki.or.jp | Paid per doc | Corporate number, representative, capital |
How to check if a foreign company is legit?
Pull the company from the official state register in its jurisdiction of incorporation, confirm active status, then cross-check the registered address, directors and VAT number against what the buyer wrote on its purchase order. If any of those four fields disagree, pause the order and ask for a clean set of corporate documents before invoicing.Tier 2: beneficial ownership and the money picture
Tier 1 tells you the company is real. Tier 2 tells you who owns it and whether it can pay. Both questions have moved into public infrastructure over the last six years, which is the information gain most commercial credit guides still miss. For EU-incorporated counterparties, each Member State maintains a beneficial ownership register under Directive (EU) 2018/843, the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5, Article 30). These national registers are interconnected through BORIS, the Beneficial Ownership Registers Interconnection System, accessible via the European e-Justice portal. Public access has been recalibrated after the 2022 Court of Justice ruling in Joined Cases C-37/20 and C-601/20, so access is now conditional on legitimate interest in several Member States. Creditors extending commercial credit generally qualify. For US-incorporated counterparties, the Corporate Transparency Act requires reporting companies to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN at fincen.gov/boi. The scope and enforcement posture shifted during 2024 and 2025 in response to litigation, so treat the filing obligation as in force but verify current status before relying on a FinCEN pull for a specific entity. The financial picture sits alongside the ownership picture. In most of Western Europe, small and medium companies are required to file annual accounts with the same register that holds their corporate identity. Germany, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France all publish filed accounts free or for a modest fee. Southern Europe is mixed. Eastern Europe is improving. A company that should be filing and is two years behind is not necessarily insolvent, but it is a warning flag worth a question. Where accounts are not available or the order size justifies spend, a commercial credit bureau report fills the gap. For cross-border trade, the most useful signal is often not the credit score itself but whether a major trade credit insurer will cover your buyer at the limit you are requesting. An insurer that declines a buyer limit has done more diligence than you can do alone, and the declination is a data point.How to verify a foreign company?
Start with the state register. Confirm the legal name, number and status match the documents you have been given. Then run the VAT or tax number through the national authority (EU VIES for EU counterparties). Then screen against sanctions lists. Then request two trade references from your sector and call them.Tier 3: behavioural and compliance signals
Tier 3 is free, takes twenty minutes, and catches a surprising amount. None of these signals alone is decisive. Collectively they tell you whether the commercial surface of the company matches its registry reality. - Website and domain age. A WHOIS lookup that shows a three-week-old domain on a company claiming ten years of trading is a contradiction. So is a website with no imprint, no company number, no VAT, and stock photos for staff. - LinkedIn presence of the people named as directors. Not a perfect test, but absence is information. If the sole director has no LinkedIn, no press footprint and no digital identity of any kind, that is unusual for a company large enough to order USD 80,000. - Google News. Sixty seconds. Buyer name in quotes plus the word "insolvency", then "lawsuit", then "fraud". If something surfaces, read it before shipping. - VAT registration. Run the number through the EU VIES system at ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/ for any EU counterparty. VIES confirms whether a VAT number is valid and the trader is registered for intra-community transactions. An invalid or inactive VIES response before a cross-border sale is a real problem, both for fraud risk and for your own zero-rating position. - Sanctions screening. Check the counterparty and its directors against the OFAC SDN list, EU consolidated list, UK HM Treasury sanctions list, and UN consolidated list. These are free and searchable. Shipping to a sanctioned party is not a credit problem, it is an offence. - Insolvency proceedings. The EU Insolvency Registers Interconnection (IRI) aggregates national insolvency registers through the European e-Justice portal. Germany publishes at insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de. The UK maintains the Individual Insolvency Register and the Companies House strike-off/insolvency notices. The US federal bankruptcy system is on PACER. Canada maintains the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Registry. Check the relevant one before extending credit.The six-point pre-sale checklist
This is the minimum standard we apply at InterStation before recommending that a client extend open-account terms to a new foreign counterparty. Each point has a specific data source. A company that fails two or more points should not be shipped to on open account. Advance payment, letter of credit, or trade credit insurance is the right posture instead.| Point | What you check | Where you check it | Pass criterion |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corporate identity | Official state register (see tier 1 table) | Name, number and address match purchase order exactly |
| 2 | Legal status | Same register | Active. Not dissolved, struck off, or in insolvency proceedings |
| 3 | Solvency signal | Filed accounts or credit bureau report | Positive equity, no qualified audit, no recent material decline |
| 4 | Tax / VAT registration | EU VIES or national tax authority | Valid live number matching registered entity |
| 5 | Sanctions screening | OFAC SDN, EU, UK HMT, UN | No hit on entity, directors, or beneficial owners |
| 6 | Trade reference | Two existing customers, ideally in your sector | Pays within agreed terms, no disputes in last 12 months |
How to check if a company is on the register of overseas entities?
The UK Register of Overseas Entities sits at Companies House and covers non-UK entities that own UK land. Search by entity name or Overseas Entity ID at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Each registered overseas entity must disclose its beneficial owners annually. This register is narrower than a general verification tool, but it is the right check when the buyer is a non-UK company asserting UK property.Information-gain section: what most commercial credit guides still miss
The gap in generic "how to check a supplier" content is the integration of three public systems that now exist and are free: BORIS for EU beneficial ownership, the EU Insolvency Registers Interconnection through e-Justice, and VIES for VAT validation. Used together they let you, in under thirty minutes, establish corporate existence, ownership, live tax status, and insolvency exposure across 27 Member States without a paid aggregator. Add sanctions screening and you have a defensible pre-sale file that would satisfy most internal audit standards. Our intelligence work on [foreign debtor investigation](/blog/interstation-debtor-investigation-international) and [cross-border skip tracing](/blog/interstation-skip-tracing-cross-border) consistently shows the same pattern: the file on a defaulted foreign buyer almost always contained tier 1 warning signs that were available before the first invoice and were not checked. Pre-sale is 30 minutes of free work. Post-default is months of [international collection](/operations/international-collections) at a fraction of the invoice face value.What is the best way to find out if a company is legitimate?
Combine three sources. The official state register in the country of incorporation for legal existence and status. The EU VIES system or national tax authority for an active VAT or tax number. Two trade references from the buyer's existing customers in your sector for actual payment behaviour. If all three line up, the company is legitimate in the operational sense.
This service is not appropriate if:
- You need real-time automated KYB at scale. InterStation runs intelligence-led manual pre-sale files. If you need 10,000 API calls a day, a KYB platform is the right tool.
- The buyer is a regulated financial institution. Use the home state financial regulator's own register (FCA, BaFin, ACPR, FINMA) directly, not a commercial check.
- The transaction is consumer. Our work is commercial creditor-side. Consumer fraud prevention is a different discipline.
- You want a simple green/red score. Our briefings explain the evidence and the residual risk. They do not reduce the decision to a number.
How InterStation Handles a Pre-sale Intelligence Check
1. Receive the counterparty file. Name, country, registration number if available, order value, proposed terms. 30-minute turnaround for tier 1 verification. 2. Pull the official register record. Legal status, directors, filed accounts, corporate changes in the last 24 months. 3. Run UBO, VAT, insolvency and sanctions. BORIS or national UBO register, VIES or tax authority, EU IRI or national insolvency register, OFAC / EU / UK / UN sanctions. 4. Apply the six-point checklist. Each point scored pass, fail, or unavailable, with evidence attached. 5. Deliver the briefing. One page, evidence-led, with a clear recommendation on terms, limit and collateral. No score, no algorithm, just the file.TURNAROUND
30 min
30-minute turnaround for tier 1 verification.
CORPORATE CHANGES
24 months
Legal status, directors, filed accounts, corporate changes in the last 24 months.
BRIEFING
1 page
One page, evidence-led, with a clear recommendation on terms, limit and collateral.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to check if a foreign company is legit?
Pull the company from the official state register in its country of incorporation, confirm active legal status, cross-check the registered address and directors against the purchase order, and validate the VAT or tax number through the national authority. If any field disagrees, pause the transaction.
How to verify a foreign company?
Verify in three tiers. Tier 1 is existence and status from the state register. Tier 2 is beneficial ownership via the relevant UBO register and financial signal from filed accounts or a credit bureau. Tier 3 is sanctions, insolvency and trade references. A pass on all six pre-sale checklist points is the operational standard.
How to check if a company is on the register of overseas entities?
Search the UK Companies House Register of Overseas Entities by entity name or Overseas Entity ID. The register covers non-UK entities holding UK land and discloses their beneficial owners. It is a narrow compliance check, not a general verification tool.
What is the best way to find out if a company is legitimate?
Combine three sources: the official state register for legal existence, the EU VIES or national tax authority for a live VAT number, and two trade references from the buyer's existing customers in your sector. If all three line up and no sanctions or insolvency signal is present, the company is operationally legitimate.
How to check if a foreign company is legit?
Start with the official commercial register in the company’s country: Companies House (UK), Handelsregister (Germany), INSEE SIRENE (France), Registro Mercantil Central (Spain), KRS (Poland), ACRA BizFile (Singapore). Verify active legal status, registration number, and registered address. Cross-check against EU VIES for VAT registration and against OFAC, EU and UK sanctions lists.
How to verify a foreign company?
Run a six-point check: official commercial register identity, active legal status, financial statements or credit bureau rating, VAT registration via VIES, sanctions screening, and one trading reference from an existing partner. Most developed jurisdictions expose enough data for a qualified verification in under 30 minutes.
How to check if a company is on the register of overseas entities?
The UK Register of Overseas Entities is maintained by Companies House under the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022. Search at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. It covers foreign companies that hold UK land and discloses beneficial owners. Non-compliance blocks land dealings.
What is the best way to find out if a company is legitimate?
Consult the official commercial registry of the company’s country of registration. Public registers in Germany (Handelsregister), the UK (Companies House), France (INSEE SIRENE), Italy (Registro Imprese) and most other developed economies confirm legal existence, directors, and recent filings. Supplement with a credit bureau report and a sanctions screen for high-value exposure.
Contact
A pre-sale intelligence file costs a fraction of a disputed invoice. If you are looking at a first order from a foreign buyer and the numbers are large enough to matter, we will run the file before you ship. [Contact Us, Free Review](/contact).Sources and Legal References
1. Directive (EU) 2018/843 (AMLD5), Article 30: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32018L0843
2. US Corporate Transparency Act, FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Information: https://fincen.gov/boi
3. EU Insolvency Registers Interconnection via European e-Justice: https://e-justice.europa.eu
4. EU VIES VAT validation: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/
5. OFAC Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List: https://ofac.treasury.gov/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-human-readable-lists
6. UK Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
7. UK Register of Overseas Entities (Companies House): https://companieshouse.blog.gov.uk/2022/11/21/register-of-overseas-entities-what-why-and-when/
8. Germany Handelsregister: https://www.handelsregister.de
9. France INSEE SIRENE: https://www.sirene.fr
10. Netherlands KvK Handelsregister: https://www.kvk.nl/en/
11. Belgium Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO): https://kbopub.economie.fgov.be
12. Poland KRS: https://ems.ms.gov.pl
13. Ireland CRO: https://core.cro.ie
14. Italy Registro delle Imprese: https://www.registroimprese.it
15. Spain Registro Mercantil Central: https://www.rmc.es
16. Australia ASIC: https://asic.gov.au
17. Singapore ACRA BizFile: https://www.bizfile.gov.sg
18. Hong Kong Companies Registry: https://www.cr.gov.hk
19. China National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System: http://www.gsxt.gov.cn
20. Japan Houmu-kyoku commercial register: https://www1.touki.or.jp
21. Court of Justice of the European Union, Joined Cases C-37/20 and C-601/20 (UBO public access): https://curia.europa.eu