KYB Verification: How to Verify a Company (India & Global)
What KYB checks cover, how to run them from official sources, and where a free lookup stops.
Know Your Business (KYB) is the process of confirming that a company is what it says it is, and understanding who is behind it, before you pay it, lend to it, sell to it or sign with it. It is the company-side equivalent of checking a person’s identity. This guide sets out the checks that usually make up KYB, how to run each from official sources in India and in the other markets Kubr covers, and where free lookups stop.
KYB has no single legal definition. Banks, payment firms and regulated entities apply it under their own regulatory rules, and those rules differ. This article is about the records-based checks any business can run on a private counterparty. It is not a compliance programme and not legal advice.
The core KYB checks
| Check | Question it answers | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Registry existence and status | Is the entity registered, under this name and number, and is it active? | Company registry |
| Directors and officers | Who runs it, and are they the people you have met? | Company registry |
| Owners and beneficial owners | Who ultimately owns or controls it? | Registry filings where public; the company’s own registers |
| Registered address | Does the address match what you were told? | Company registry |
| Tax registration | Is it registered for the relevant tax, and is the registration live? | Tax authority lookup (in India, the GST portal) |
| Sanctions | Do the company or its principals appear on a sanctions list? | Official sanctions lists |
| Litigation and insolvency | Is it in disputes or insolvency proceedings? | Courts and tribunals |
| Charges and liens | Has it pledged assets to lenders? | Charge register or lien registry |
Doing it in India
1. Registry existence, status, directors, address
Start on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA21) site with the company’s Corporate Identification Number (CIN). Master data shows the registered name, status, date of incorporation, registered office and directors with their Director Identification Numbers. Our step-by-step note on checking an Indian company on MCA21 covers filings, charges and tribunal cases.
2. Beneficial ownership
Indian company law requires significant beneficial owners to be declared to the company and reported to the registrar. What a member of the public can view on the MCA site is limited and can change, so confirm on the MCA website what is available, and ask the company for its own register of significant beneficial owners. Compare it with the shareholder list in the annual return.
3. Tax registration: GST
The GST portal has a public Search Taxpayer facility. Enter the GSTIN and the portal returns the registered legal and trade names, status and jurisdiction. Because a GSTIN embeds the PAN, you can also check that it matches the PAN you were given. We explain the fields and their limits in GST number verification: how to check a GSTIN.
4. Sanctions and litigation
Sanctions screening is done against the lists of the relevant authorities, for example the US Treasury’s OFAC Sanctions List Search and the UK Sanctions List. For Indian court records, the eCourts service and tribunal sites such as the NCLT are searchable by party name; see checking litigation and court records. Name searches throw up false matches, so match on more than the name before drawing any conclusion.
Doing it in the other Kubr markets
- United Kingdom. Companies House shows status, officers, filing history, charges and people with significant control. See Companies House check.
- Singapore. ACRA, through BizFile+, holds the business profile, officers and charges. See ACRA company search.
- Hong Kong. The Companies Registry e-Services portal. See Hong Kong company search.
- Canada. Corporations Canada for federal companies, provincial registries for the rest. See Canada company search.
- Australia. ASIC registers and the PPSR. See ASIC and PPSR checks.
- United States. State registries, UCC lien searches and court records. See US company records check.
The European Union has no single register of companies; searches run through each member state’s registry. Our European Union page explains how Kubr approaches it.
What free lookups miss
- Whether the company trades. A live registration and a valid tax number show the entity exists, not that it has customers, staff or cash.
- Who really controls it. Nominee shareholders, layered holding companies and closed registers can leave the final owner out of public view.
- Financial truth. Filed accounts are the company’s own submission. Bank and tax records, obtained with the company’s consent, are the way to compare them with reality.
- The full picture across names. A name search cannot see group companies, former names or linked entities unless you look for them.
- Timing. Every lookup is a snapshot. Record the date and keep the evidence.
A repeatable KYB routine
- Collect the legal name, registration number and tax number from the company, in writing.
- Match each against the official register and keep a dated copy.
- List the people on the register and compare them with the people you have dealt with.
- Run sanctions, litigation and charge checks on the company and its principals.
- Write down every mismatch and send it back to the company as a question, not a conclusion.
When to commission a records-based report
A self-run check is reasonable for a low-value, low-risk relationship. A commissioned report makes sense when the amount is material, the counterparty is new, the ownership is layered, or the company’s story does not match the register. Kubr’s Verified Snapshot reads the registers, filings and court records for a company and, with the company’s consent, compares them with bank and tax records. The vendor and counterparty due diligence page describes how this fits supplier and customer onboarding. To discuss a specific counterparty, contact us.
Sources
Primary registries and regulators referred to in this article:
- Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), India
- GST portal, Government of India
- GST portal: Search Taxpayer
- India eCourts Services
- OFAC Sanctions List Search, US Treasury
- The UK Sanctions List, GOV.UK
- Companies House, United Kingdom
Kubr accesses bank and tax records only with the company’s consent.
This article is general information, not legal, financial or investment advice.