This is a list of official business registers around the world.
There are many types of official business registers, usually maintained for various purposes by a state authority, such as a government agency, or a court of law. In some cases, it may also be devolved to self-governing bodies, either commercial (a chamber of commerce) or professional (a regulatory college); or to a dedicated, highly regulated company (i.e., operator of a stock exchange, a multilateral trading facility, a central securities depository or an alternative trading system).
The following is an incomplete list of official business registers by country.
Types of registers A business register may include data on entities, as well as on their status for various purposes. Examples of such registers include:
company register — a register of legal entities in the jurisdiction they operate under, for the purpose of establishing, dissolving, acquisition of legal capacity and (in some cases) juridical personality, determination of legal representation, protection, accountability, and control of legal entities. list of undertakings cleared for access to classified information — register of companies authorized to work on contracts involving dealing with sensitive information documents of a government or an international organisation, usually maintained by a counter-intelligence service. statistical business register — plays a central part in a system of official economic statistics at a national statistics office.
Another group of business registers is focused on various assets or liabilities of an entity, rather than on entities themselves, these include: public contract register — a repository that aims at keeping track of all procurements, usually awarded through a tender, concluded by the public institutions, making this information available online, thereby providing a basis for monitoring the way in which public money is spent. public aid register — an official register of businesses in difficulties which received aid from the state. ultimate beneficial owner register — an official repository of natural person or persons who ultimately own or control a company, maintained to counteract money laundering and terrorist financing. land and mortgage register — concerns titles, rights, and liabilities (such as real estate liens or pledges) related to real estate, consisting of premises specified in a cadaster, such as land, buildings, or condominium units, cadaster — determines the geospatial localization, the extent, and (in some cases) the value of premises, including land parcels, buildings, and condominium units, which together form real estate, subject to rights and liabilities registered in a land and mortgage register, vehicle register (such as those for motor vehicles, rolling stock, boat or ships, or aircraft) — includes entries containing data on vehicle identification number, vehicle registration plate number, vehicle title, type approval, vehicle inspections, liability insurance, as well as vehicle liens, such as maritime liens, and which sometimes may be connected to a register of pledges or tax liens. register of pledges — includes entries concerning liabilities (pledges and voluntary specific liens) of a pledgor to a creditor, secured by tying them to a pledgor's collateral, such as a movable, a security, or an intellectual property right. industrial property register — an official database containing registered trade marks, as well as patented inventions, industrial designs, utility models, or integrated circuits, thus protecting and reserving the rights of the company which developed them or bought rights to them. plant breeders’ rights register — registers rights to a protected plant variety, developed and registered by a plant breeder.
Some types of business registers combine the features of both groups, these include: tax register — a register used for the purpose of revenue collection, including taxes, duties such as tariffs or excise, as well as mandatory social insurance and health insurance contributions; such a register includes all taxable entities, as well as their tax liabilities, including tax liens. public company and securities register — the official repository of publicly listed or unlisted companies whose at least one emission of securities was offered for the purpose of free trading to a number of persons exceeding certain threshold (varying according to jurisdiction), thus placing such a company under specific regulatory obligations, mainly concerning mandatory publication of information on the terms and rights attached to the offered security, as well as information on the company itself and its finances. list of companies and their securities publicly traded on a stock market — maintained by a stock exchange or an alternative trading system for the purpose of trading and quoting companies’ stocks. insolvency register — contains information on companies who entered insolvency, bankruptcy, liquidation, administration, receivership, debt restructuring, or have been under futile execution, either of an administrative debt (by a government agency) or of a private debt (by a bailiff), for longer than an amount of time specified by law, as well as on their liabilities. register or a list of a specified type of regulated entities or activities — contains entries on companies officially authorized to perform a specified type of business, where prior obtaining of a permit, a license, a concession, or registration on such a list or register is a prerequisite required by law. Depending on situation, regulation may apply to an entity type, or to a type of entity's activity.__NOTOC__
European Union and the European Economic Area company registers European Commission - the Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS) (uses data from national registers operated by the member states) (searchable); List of European Research Infrastructure Consortia (online web list) European Committee of the Regions - Register of European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (uses data from national lists operated by the member states) (available unrestricted as a search engine and a GIS/cadaster) the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations - Register of European political parties and European political foundations (EU only) (online web lists) tax registers (European Commission) VAT Information Exchange System (uses data from national registers operated by the member states) - taxpayers who obtained registration allowing to perform intra-community supply transactions; not mandatory for VAT-exempt entities involved in intra-community supply transactions of low worth in the given year, unless they do not perform services by delegating their employees to another EU country (online VAT number check) System of Exchange of Excise Data (SEED) (uses data from national lists operated by the member states) - (SEED number check) Registered Exporter System (REX) (central register with input operated by the member states) (REX number check) Economic Operator Identification and Registration System (EORI) (central register with input operated by the member states) – (EORI number check) Economic Operator Systems Authorized Economic Operator (central register with input operated by the member states) – Authorized Economic Operator Database (searchable) vehicle registers EU Fleet Register (EU only, uses data from national lists operated by the member states) - registry of maritime commercial vessels used in fisheries within the Common Fisheries Policy (searchable) EUCARIS (European Car and Driving License Information System)
Austria Wiener Zeitung — the official gazette. (languages: German only) Firmenbuch — the searchable database. (languages: German only) Financial Market Authority (FMA) — has searchable database for companies that hold FMA-issued licenses. (languages: German only)
Belgium KBO Public Search — searchable database for public information on every registered active enterprise and establishment in Belgium. (languages: Dutch, French) Central Balance Sheet Office (National Bank of Belgium) — has the accounts of companies, associations, and foundations active in Belgium. (languages: Dutch, French, German, English) Crossroads Bank for Enterprises Enterprise Search — maintained by the Federal Public Service Justice (languages: French only) Public companies register (STORI) — maintained by the Financial Services and Markets Authority
Bulgaria Trade Register — electronic register. Companies must be entered into the commercial register that is kept with the relevant district court, where they can be viewed by the public. (languages: Bulgarian only) D&B Report Guide Bulgaria — information on the different types of companies Trade Register (Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
Croatia Biznet — provides information and statistics on the Croatian economy, and access to the Register of Business Entities. It is maintained by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce Biznet. (languages: Croatian and English) D&B Report Guide Croatia — provides information on legal forms and filing requirements. Croatian Company Directory Business Register — maintained by the Ministry of Justice. (languages: Croatian only) Export Directory — maintained by the Chamber of Economy. (languages: Croatian only)
Cyprus Department of the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver — responsible for keeping the Register of Companies, Partnerships, Business Names, Trade Marks, Patents and Industrial Designs, as well as for administering properties of insolvent legal and natural persons.
Czech Republic Public register and the collection of documents — maintained by the Ministry of Justice. (language: Czech) Register of economic entities — maintained by the Ministry of Finance Trade Licensing Register — maintained by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. (Czech version has additional detail.)
Denmark Central Business Register — the official registry of Danish businesses. Danish Commerce and Companies Agency (:da:Erhvervs- og Selskabsstyrelsen) — former administrator of the Central Business Register, since a reorganization in 2012 a part of the Danish Business Authority (:da:Erhvervsstyrelsen). Financial Supervisory Authority — supervisory agency which administers a database of enterprises under increased supervision.
Estonia Central Commercial Register () — an online service based on the central database of Estonian registration departments of the courts. Database of the Financial Supervision Authority () — searchable database of supervised entities. (languages: Estonian, English)
Finland Finnish Trade Register — official company register for Finnish companies, maintained by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. (languages: Finnish, English, Swedish) BIS Search — trade register of 470,000 Finnish companies via the Business Information System of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. : Åland Online — companies, organizations and associations
France Trade and Companies Register () — official register of over 3,200,000 French companies, maintained by the Commercial Court. (languages: French) Sirene — statistical business register maintained by INSEE. (languages: French only) Bulletin of Obligatory Legal Announcements — maintained by Journal officiel de la République française. (languages: French only) Official Bulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, BODACC) — publishes companies registered in the RCS (registre du commerce et des sociétés). (languages: French only) : Paris Registry — maintained by the Clerk of the Commercial Court of Paris (Greffe du Tribunal de Commerce de Paris)
Germany German Commercial Register — judicial register of the federal states. (languages: German, English, Spanisch, French, Italian)