Company Registry Spotlight: China

The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System is a Chinese governmental agency that provides information about companies to the public.

The system, launched in February 2014, is run by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) of China.

The information contained in this system comes from government departments and market entities, including all local Industrial and Commercial Administrations in China. The companies themselves – including enterprises of different sizes, farmers and professional cooperatives, and individual industrial and commercial entities across the country – are responsible for the authenticity and legality of the information they disclose.

As of July 2022, there are roughly 154,000,000 registered companies in the system. The number of new companies incorporated in 2022 alone is 15,710,000.

Since 2013, an average of more than 10 million new entities has been added to the registry every year.

As soon as an entity registration has been completed or the information has been filed with the relevant provincial industry and commerce authorities, details on that entity are published in the system in real-time.

Available information includes:

• Company registration information: registered capital, address, legal person
• Investor information
• Company changes information
• Filing records of key personnel and branch information
• Public announcements
• Administrative penalty information
• Records of penalties by Industrial and Commercial Departments
• List of abnormal business operations
• Public information submitted by entities in accordance with regulations: Annual return, Licensed information

The System is publicly accessible online at the following address: https://www.gsxt.gov.cn/index.html

On 26 November 2021, the System officially launched a real-name authentication requirement for all queries.  Once authenticated, users can submit enquiries by either entering:

• A company registration number
• A company’s full name for precise queries
• A company name keyword for fuzzy queries
• Unified social credit number of a legal person

In a country like China where, as we have seen, millions of new companies are registered every year, it is essential to access the most up-to-date information when performing KYB checks. In these instances, databases of static information will not provide the required coverage.

Hence, when doing business with companies from China, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System can be a great help. It represents an official source of information updated in real-time, giving compliance teams peace of mind about their potential partners, suppliers or clients.

Yet, for foreign businesses, it might not be easy to navigate the Chinese-language platform and go through the various authentication steps to source the required information.

To help regulated businesses overcome the challenges of cross-border KYB compliance, we simplify and streamline registry access globally.

With Know Your Customer, not only users can access 500+ official registries via one single platform or API, but the information retrieved is automatically transliterated and standardised to break down shareholder and beneficial owner information in an easy-to-navigate way.