The Italian Business Register (2025 Update)
You'll quickly discover that accessing reliable company information in Italy isn't quite as straightforward as it is elsewhere.
The Italian Business Register holds data on over 6 million companies, but navigating it requires patience, a credit card, and a willingness to work through a system that feels designed for a different era.
This matters more than ever. Since the Italian beneficial ownership register was suspended in 2024, compliance teams have had to get creative about verifying who actually controls Italian entities. The old shortcuts are gone.
What remains is a complex web of company filings that require careful interpretation.
This guide walks you through everything you need to know. We'll show you how the Italian Business Register actually works, what documents you can access, and how to verify beneficial owners even without a functioning UBO register.
What is the Italian Business Register?
The Registro delle Imprese (the Italian Business Register) records and maintains information on businesses registered in Italy. It was established in 1993 and sits within a tangled web of bureaucracy.
Who Controls the Italian Business Register?
The Registro delle Imprese is managed by Infocamere, a technological consortium acting on behalf of the Chambers of Commerce (CoC), a network of local chambers that register businesses operating in Italy.
The Unioncamere is the linchpin holding the local chambers together, issuing them general directives and guidelines. This tangled web operates under the watchful eye of a judge and the Ministry of Economic Development.
What Information Is Available?
Basic information, such as name, registration date and tax code.
Office address.
Representatives.
Shareholders and capital structures.
Financial information.
Company history.
Be warned: The Registro delle Imprese does not maintain information on disqualified directors. However, the Ministry of Justice (Ministero della giustizia) does.
What Entities Must Register in Italy?
Most companies and business entities register with their local Chamber of Commerce.
Società per Azioni (S.p.A.): A joint-stock company with liability limited to share capital, often publicly traded and tightly regulated. It must file annual financial statements, audit reports, and meeting minutes with the Companies’ Register.
Società a Responsabilità Limitata (S.r.l.): A flexible limited liability company not eligible for listing and simpler than an S.p.A. It files annual accounts and, when applicable, auditor reports with the Companies’ Register.
Società in Nome Collettivo (S.n.c.): A general partnership where all partners have unlimited liability and manage jointly. It registers with the Companies’ Register and files accounts only if required for tax or regulatory purposes.
Società in Accomandita Semplice (S.a.s.): A limited partnership with general partners liable without limit and limited partners liable only for their contributions. It registers its deed and files accounts when thresholds are met.
Impresa Individuale: A business owned by one individual with unlimited liability. It must register with the Business Register and submit simplified accounts and tax filings.
Filiale di una Società Straniera: A foreign company’s Italian branch with no separate legal identity, exposing the parent to full liability. It must register its deed, parent documents, and annual reports locally.
Cooperativa: A member-owned entity operating for mutual benefit with limited liability and equal voting rights. It must register and file annual financial statements and, if social, a bilancio sociale.
Società tra Professionisti (S.t.P.): A professional firm formed by licensed practitioners, with liability depending on structure. It registers with the Companies’ Register and its professional body, filing annual accounts accordingly.
Consorzio (Consortium): A collaboration between independent businesses for a common goal, maintaining legal independence. It registers with the Companies’ Register and files its statutes and accounts if commercially active.
Ente del Terzo Settore: A non-profit pursuing social or charitable aims without profit distribution. It must join the RUNTS register and file annual statements and, if required, a bilancio sociale.
Fondazione: A non-profit managing assets for public or charitable purposes, with liability limited to its funds. It files annual financial and activity reports with its supervising authority.
There are exceptions: Certain professionals (doctors, lawyers and architects), small agricultural enterprises, and informal businesses.
A Step-By-Step Guide to Accessing the Italian Business Register
The Italian Business Register contains data on over 6 million companies, including basic company profiles and company filings. So, how do you access the information?
1. Register An Account.
To access company information in Italy, you must go to the official website: italianbusinessregister.it
2. Search For A Company.
Click ‘Search for a company’ on the main page. You can search by name, registration number, tax code and activity.
3. Click ‘Search’.
See basic information. This will include the company’s name, registered office address, tax code and activities.
4. Detailed Information.
For a deep dive, you’ll need to download critical company documents.
Let’s look at these documents.
Some advice: Cross-reference the Codice Fiscale (Tax ID), Partita IVA (VAT ID), and REA Code (Provincial Economic ID) to detect cloned or recycled entities.
Available Company Documents and Pricing
For more information, you’ll need to pay for and download company documents.
Extended Profile: Includes all the usual company details that you’ll find after a basic company search, as well as capital structure, shareholder information, and company representatives' details.
Extended Profile + History: This includes everything you’ll find in the Extended Profile, as well as a detailed timeline of a company’s legal, financial and operational history.
Company Registration Report: Certified information about companies registered in Italy, including the company representatives’ details, shareholder structure, and capital structure.
Annual Accounts: A comprehensive set of financial and operational company data, including balance sheet, income statement, auditor’s report, and cash flow statement.
Be warned: Company documents, even when downloaded, can no longer be viewed after 30 days.
Does the Italian Business Register Have APIs?
Yes, Infocamere provides APIs for accessing company data and retrieving company filings to third-party providers such as Kyckr.
Anagraphic Search: For identity verification. It helps find specific records of companies or individuals based on identifiable information, such as name or date of birth.
Protests: Helps you find formal declarations or notifications regarding the non-payment of financial instruments, such as checks or promissory notes.
XBLR Balance Sheet: For searching the XBLR balance sheets submitted by Italian companies. Since 2010, legal entities registered in Italy have had to file their annual financial reports in the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) format.
The alternative: Kyckr provides instant API access to the Italian Business Register, as well as 299 other official company registers. With Kyckr, reporting entities can retrieve company documents and profiles live and verify UBOs using underlying shareholder data.
Beneficial Ownership Laws (2025 Update)
The Italian beneficial ownership register has been suspended since 2024. It exists in a state of legal limbo: no one can access it.
Legal Fighting (2023-2024)
From its launch in October 2023, the Italian UBO register has been dogged by persistent legal challenges.
Initially, the Italian legislature aimed for full public UBO visibility, but the judiciary believed such transparency violated the individual right to privacy.
The opposition started in December 2023. Sector associations filed an appeal against the decree to the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (T.A.R. Lazio), resulting in a precautionary suspension.
T.A.R. Lazio dismissed the appeals in April 2024, but the legal fight escalated. In October 2024, the Council of State (Consiglio di Stato) referred the fundamental matter of access and public disclosure to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
Takeaway: The referral to the CJEU effectively places the central, verified source of Italian BO data in a state of indefinite legal limbo.
How to Verify Italian UBOs Without UBO Filings
Despite the legal limbo of the Italian UBO register, it is still possible to verify Italian UBOs by using shareholder disclosures available on the Italian Business Register.
From these critical documents, it is possible to map out the ownership structure of an Italian entity. But it’s difficult, time-consuming, and can cost a company revenue.
Manual Process: Shareholder data isn’t available on the Italian Business Register, so compliance teams must extract shareholder data from those filings.
Geographically Limited: The UBO could be concealed behind a complex ownership structure spanning multiple jurisdictions. Without cross-border verification capabilities, compliance teams will hit dead ends.
Lost Revenue: Time-consuming onboarding kills revenue, with high customer attrition rates correlated with longer onboarding.
How to verify Italian UBOs instantly: Kyckr verifies Italian UBOs using underlying shareholder data from Italy and hundreds of other official company registers, enabling instant UBO verification.
AML Trends in Italy (2025)
The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Bank of Italy is responsible for issuing AML anomaly indicators. The UIF’s most recent revision was in January 2024.
Important to note: The UIF indicators provide the necessary forensic overlay to interpret official corporate documents.
1. Misuse of Public Funds (PNRR Risk)
A major focus of UIF surveillance in 2023 and 2024 includes the misuse of public funds: networks of businesses that unduly procure access to subsidised financing or improperly use the allocated funds.
Red flag: Compare the company’s stated business activities and capital structure with any rapid, unexplained increases in capital, or complex transactional structures coinciding with grant receipts.
2. Corporate Financial Stress and Insolvency Risk
According to the UIF, signs of corporate distress must be treated with enhanced due diligence. This includes:
The sale or purchase of loans
The sale of assets during bankruptcy proceedings
Assets transferred as collateral.
EDD: Liquidation or insolvency proceedings are mandatorily recorded in the Registro. Compare the timeline of these filings with asset disposal or loan agreements, as timing discrepancies often indicate attempts to strip assets or obscure true ownership before collapse.
3. Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) Risk
Use Registro data, specifically the Company Representatives section and the Shareholder Structure (found in the Extended Profile), to map out all direct and indirect linkages.
Red flag: Suspicion is warranted when transactions or corporate structures appear disproportionate to the declared wealth of the associated individuals or when structures are unnecessarily complex to obfuscate ultimate control.
4. Digital Asset and FinTech Risk
Use of cryptocurrencies must be treated with heightened scrutiny. Look for evidence of unusual or rapid changes in stated business activities or sudden, large capital transfers (as reflected in Annual Accounts) that coincide with unexplained digital asset operations.
Why: These changes might mean a rapid shift in corporate function designed to facilitate money laundering using less-regulated financial technologies.
5. The Problem with S.r.l
Be wary of the S.r.l. (Limited Liability Company), as they require a minimal capital investment, as low as €1, and are subject to fewer disclosure requirements than S.p.A.s.
This low barrier to entry, along with the UIF's detection of networks of shell companies accessing subsidised funds, means the S.r.l. is a favoured vehicle for corporate financial crime schemes.
Remember: Sny S.r.l. Exhibiting high-risk UIF indicators requires mandatory, elevated scrutiny.
Access 300+ Official Registers, In One Place
The Italian Business Register gives you access to critical company data, but let's be honest: the process isn't built for speed. Every search costs money. Documents expire after 30 days. And if you're verifying beneficial owners across multiple jurisdictions, you're essentially doing detective work with one hand tied behind your back.
That's the reality of compliance in 2025. You need instant access to verified data, not just in Italy but across borders. You need to map ownership structures without manually extracting shareholder information from PDFs. And you need to do it fast enough that your customers don't abandon the onboarding process.
Kyckr solves this by connecting you directly to the Italian Business Register and 299 other official company registers worldwide. One API gives you instant access to company documents, verified UBO data, and real-time updates. No manual extraction. No geographic dead ends. Just the information you need, when you need it.
Book a demo to find out more.