Belgium Company Registry (2025 Update)

Belgium has one of the world’s most advanced company registries, but it isn’t without problems.

The national registry, the Belgium Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE), provides company information in machine-readable data via APIs and open data sets. However, it doesn’t make shareholder information public, unlike the UK’s Companies House.

This doesn’t make due diligence impossible, however: the registry shows data on linked entities, providing beneficial ownership information to those who can prove a ‘legitimate interest’, including foreign obliged entities.

This guide is for financial crime professionals navigating the Belgian company registry. It covers the available information, its limitations, how to access it, and Belgium’s implementation of the EU’s AMLA.

What is the Belgium Company Registry?

The Belgian company registry is called the Belgium Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE). It’s managed by the Federal Public Service (FPS) Economy, and serves as the central repository for information on Belgian entities.

The CBE provides three ways to access the information: via the online portal, open data, or API.

What Data is Available?

The CBE portal provides a lot of data, including:

• Basic information, such as company name, number, and registration date.

• Contact details, such as address and phone number.

• Activity codes and ‘operational skill’ (the company’s purpose).

• Status and legal status.

• Officer details, including directors and managers.

• Capital and links between other entities.

This is crucial: The CBE doesn’t provide any information on shareholders.

Accessing the Belgian Company Registry

1. Go to the Website.

You can find it here.

2. Choose Search Criteria.

You can only search by number, name, activity, or authorisation.

3. Commence Search.

The first layer contains basic information, including the company’s number, name, registration date, and address. 

4. Choose Company.

This will provide more detailed information, including:

• Number.

• Status.

• Legal situation.

• Contact details.

• Links between entities.

• Legal form.

• Officers.

• Operational skill.

• Activity code (Nacebel).

• Capital.

• Financial year-end date.

• Annual assembly.

5. Download Company Extracts

For more information, users must download company extracts. You will find these at the bottom of each entry in the form of external links to other government databases. 

Alternatively, you can print a PDF version of the company’s page in your browser.

Documents Available on CBE

Once you click the link, you will be taken to the company’s entry in the individual database and can download extracts for free.

• Annual Accounts: From the Central Balance Sheet Office.

• Articles of Association: From https://statuts.notaire.be.

• Power of Representation: From the above.

Available APIs and Open Data

There are two ways to access company information: via open data or API. 

• Connection BCE Open Data File: This CSV file is available every Monday after the first Sunday of the month.

• Connection BCE Public Search Web Service: This API enables you to retrieve all public data from all enterprises in the CBE(KBO) and integrate it into your workflow. It costs €50,00 per 2000 requests.

Is It Reliable?

The CBE is only as reliable as the information that companies provide about themselves. However, the registry has taken steps in recent years to verify that information.

• Cross-Department Synchronicity: When a natural person changes their address on the National Register or the Crossroads Bank for Social Security, it is automatically changed on the CBE.

• Strike-Offs: Entities are sometimes automatically removed “ex officio” for administrative noncompliance, as happened in February 2024, when 21,000 entities were automatically struck off for failing to submit beneficial ownership information.

• Multiple Entries: Duplicate entries of company registration numbers are cancelled by the Management Service. Any FCP searches using a cancelled number are automatically redirected to the correct number.

Takeaway: The CBE is changing from a mere archivist to a gatekeeper of truth.

Is Shareholder Information Available in Belgium?

Unlike the UK’s Companies House, the CBE doesn’t publish shareholder information. 

Private companies maintain private shareholder registers, which shareholders and the Belgian authorities can inspect upon legitimate request.

Some information is available, but it’s limited. When share transfers or capital increases require a notarial act, that act is filed with the National Bank of Belgium’s Central Balance Sheet Office (Banque nationale de Belgique) and published in the Belgian Official Gazette (Moniteur belge / Belgisch Staatsblad).

These published acts may incidentally mention shareholder names, but only in specific cases (e.g. founding shareholders in the articles of association).

The bottom line: some founder names are visible at incorporation, but subsequent shareholders are not systematically disclosed.

The Belgian Register of Beneficial Owners

The UBO Register is managed by the Federal Public Service (FPS) Finance, a centralised dataset that identifies natural persons with ultimate control (more than 25% of financial or practical control).

After the November 2022 CJEU judgment, access was limited to obliged entities, competent authorities, and persons with a “legitimate interest”. 

How to Access Belgian UBO Information as a Foreign Bank

Belgium offers a ‘closed’ beneficial ownership register, providing information on a case-by-case basis by email to those who can prove a ‘legitimate interest’ in doing so. 

According to Article 4, 23° of the law of September 18th 2017, foreign banks can apply for beneficial ownership information if: 

• They are entering an economic relationship, or 

• In litigation with an entity.

Fees and Processing: No fees. According to Transparency International, legitimate interest requests are processed within a week.

Belgium AML Reforms (2025-6)

Since 2024, EU member states such as Belgium have had to integrate a package of new AML reforms, also called Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 – the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) – into national law, a series of amendments to the 6AMLD. This includes: 

• More Obliged Entities: Crypto-asset service providers, high-value goods/luxury goods traders, football clubs/agents in some cases, crowdfunding platforms. 

• Registry Harmonisation: Including definitions and thresholds for beneficial ownership, tightened access to beneficial-ownership registers, and expanded registers (bank‐account registers, real‐estate registers) for AML/CFT purposes. 

• Large Cash Payment Cap: An EU-wide maximum cap on large cash payments (e.g., €10,000), though Member States may set tighter limits. 

• Strengthened FIU Powers: Access to financial/administrative data, enhanced cross-border FIU cooperation, more robust supervisory frameworks for national authorities, and enhanced sanctions. 

• An EU-wide Supervisory Architecture: AMLA will coordinate national supervisors, and for selected high-risk entities, will have direct supervision (joint supervisory teams). 

As a public statement said: “The AML/CFT Package not only strengthens existing laws but replaces EU Directives … with an EU Regulation and maximum harmonisation Directive.”

Has Belgium Implemented It?

No. On 25 September 2025, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Belgium and 10 other member states for failing to implement the beneficial ownership access rules, which sought to harmonise ‘legitimate interest’ access. They have until November to begin implementing them.

Access the Global Business Register

The CBE is a useful repository of information on Belgian companies, but it’s limited by a critical due diligence gap: it lacks publicly available shareholder information.

That doesn’t render due diligence on Belgian entities toothless, however. The CBE shows linked entities and provides beneficial ownership to those who can prove a legitimate interest.

This means that financial crime teams must turn to third-party providers to enrich that KYB data. They must ‘build a picture’ of a company using multiple sources from global jurisdictions. 

That’s where Kyckr comes in.

Kyckr provides live access to 300+ official company registries, all in one place, either via the Kyckr API or the Kyckr Portal, making cross-border verification of Belgian entities effortless. 

Book a demo to verify complex corporate structures.