Company Registry Lookup

Why verify a company?

When you receive an invoice, onboard a new supplier, or make a bank transfer to a trading partner, you are trusting that the business you are dealing with is who they say they are. That trust has real financial and legal consequences:

• Payment fraud: Authorised push payment (APP) fraud — where fraudsters impersonate legitimate suppliers and redirect payments to their own accounts — cost UK businesses over £500m in 2023 alone. A name-and-account match check is a primary defence.
• VAT compliance: EU VAT law requires invoices to contain the correct legal name, address and VAT number of both parties. An invoice with incorrect details can be disallowed on audit.
• KYC and AML: Regulated businesses (financial services, legal, accountancy) have legal obligations to verify the identity of their clients and counterparties before transacting.
• Credit risk: Knowing a company's registered status (active, dormant, dissolved) helps assess whether they are a viable trading partner.

Data sources for company verification

Several complementary sources provide registry-quality company data:

VIES (EU VAT Information Exchange System)

VIES confirms that a VAT number is currently registered and active in the EU. For most EU member states it also returns the registered trading name and address. It is the primary source for EU VAT compliance verification and is free to query via the European Commission's API.

One important limitation: some countries (notably Germany) withhold name and address from VIES for privacy reasons. For these, additional sources are needed.

GLEIF (Global LEI Database)

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) maintains a public database of all issued LEIs — 20-character codes that uniquely identify legal entities in financial markets. The GLEIF database contains the legal name, registered address, jurisdiction, entity status, and associated registration numbers for over 2.5 million entities worldwide.

GLEIF data is particularly valuable for large companies that are active in capital markets or have cross-border financial relationships, as LEI registration requires documented legal identity. The GLEIF API is free, requires no authentication, and is available at api.gleif.org.

OpenCorporates

OpenCorporates aggregates company registry data from over 140 jurisdictions worldwide, covering both large public registries (Companies House, Handelsregister, SIRENE) and less accessible national sources. It is the most comprehensive source for SME data that may not be captured in GLEIF.

National registries (direct)

Several national registries provide direct API access:

Source priority and data quality

Not all sources are equally authoritative. When combining data from multiple sources, country-specific registries (Companies House, Brreg, CVR, HMRC) are the most authoritative for their jurisdiction — they are the official source of truth. GLEIF is strong for large entities with LEIs. OpenCorporates provides broad coverage but may be less current for smaller companies.

Versys applies this priority order when merging data from multiple sources:

1. Country-specific APIs (HMRC, Companies House, Brreg, CVR, SIRENE)
2. GLEIF
3. OpenCorporates

Name consistency checking

One of the most useful fraud-prevention checks is comparing the name on an invoice or payment instruction against the name registered with the company registry. A significant mismatch — where the invoice says "Acme Trading Ltd" but the registry says "Acme International GmbH" — is a red flag worth investigating.

Versys performs fuzzy name matching between the name you supply and the name returned from the registry, returning a match level (exact, strong, partial, or weak) and a similarity score. This helps surface subtle discrepancies that an exact string match would miss.

What is a LEI number?

A Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a 20-character alphanumeric code (ISO 17442) that uniquely identifies a legal entity in financial transactions. It was created after the 2008 financial crisis to improve transparency in global financial markets.

LEIs are mandatory under EU regulation for firms participating in securities trading (MiFID II, EMIR, SFTR) and are increasingly used for KYC and AML compliance more broadly. An LEI can be verified instantly against the GLEIF public database, making it a reliable anchor for company identity.

A LEI has the structure: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX — 18 alphanumeric characters identifying the issuing Local Operating Unit (first 4) and the entity (characters 5–18), plus a 2-digit check sum.