CIPC Company Verification for business customers

Verifies a business customer against the CIPC register and returns the record the CIPC holds on the company, including its directors and whether it is in business or liquidated.

  • Source: CIPC
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This is the verification to run when the customer in front of you is a business rather than an individual, and it is the point at which a KYC flow becomes a KYB flow. It looks up the registration number and name you give against the CIPC register and returns the record the CIPC holds on the entity.

What you get, and where it stops

What you get

  • That the registration number is valid for a South African registered entity.
  • That the company name matches the registration held by the CIPC.
  • The CIPC record for the entity, including directors’ active status and in-business or liquidated status.

Where it stops

  • That it is trading, solvent, tax-compliant or in good standing on any measure other than registration. A registered, non-liquidated company can still be dormant.
  • That the person contacting you is authorised to act for it. Registration says nothing about mandate.
  • Who ultimately owns or controls it. A company’s registered directors are not its beneficial owners, and establishing beneficial ownership is a separate exercise. Director Search gives you an input to it, not the answer.

Chain it with

A flow is several verifications run as one journey. These pair naturally with CIPC Company Verification.

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What you need to run it

Company registration number
The CIPC registration number, as given to you.
Registered name
The name to be confirmed against the registration.

Your POPIA position. POPIA protects identifiable, existing juristic persons as well as natural persons, so information about a registered company is personal information under POPIA. You still need a lawful ground and a defined purpose, and the report includes director particulars from the public register, to which your own purpose limitation applies. Veriflow runs the verification on your instruction as an operator under POPIA; you remain the responsible party for the decision to run it.

What comes back

The record the CIPC holds on the registered entity, returned in real time.

Sample result
Registered address
As held by the CIPC.
Registration number
As held by the CIPC.
Directors
The directors on record, and whether each is active.
Business history
As held by the CIPC.
Auditors
As held by the CIPC.
Tax number
As held by the CIPC.
Enterprise type
For example, private or public company.
Status
Whether the company is in business or liquidated.

Every result is filed with a timestamped audit record.

Outcomes you will see, and how to read them.
OutcomeWhat it means
Record returnedThe registration exists and the CIPC record comes back in full.
Not foundNo registration was returned. The company likely does not exist under that number, or the number was mistyped. Re-capture it before drawing a conclusion.

Where it fits in your compliance programme

Where your customer is a legal person, customer due diligence under section 21 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FICA) extends to establishing and verifying that entity, and the record of having done so is what FICA sections 22 and 23 require you to keep.

Establishing who beneficially owns or controls the entity is a further, separate step. Do not treat a registration confirmation as having answered it.

Questions

Does CIPC verification tell me if a company is still trading?

It tells you the register status: whether the company is in business or liquidated, and whether its directors are active. It cannot show day-to-day activity.

Can I verify a company by name instead of registration number?

No. It runs from the CIPC registration number, and matches the name you give against the record for that number.

How do I run CIPC Company Verification, and what does it cost?

It runs on its own or as one step in a flow. Run it from the portal, or through the API with a sandbox to build against (credentials on request). There is no public price list: book a demo and a specialist prepares a pricing proposal built around your volumes. You can pay as you go from a wallet or settle monthly on invoice.

About results

Veriflow will perform the Services with the reasonable skill and care of a competent provider of identity-verification services in South Africa. Veriflow transmits results sourced from third-party data sources, including registered South African credit bureaux, banks, official registers and published watchlists. Veriflow does not compile that underlying data, does not warrant its accuracy, completeness or currency, and gives no warranty that any verification result is correct.

A Result is an input to the Client's own assessment. Veriflow does not decide whether any person or entity is onboarded, declined, priced, offboarded, employed, granted credit or reported, and makes no recommendation as to any of those outcomes. Those decisions are made solely by the Client, on its own criteria and under its own legal obligations, and the Client must not use a Result as the sole basis for any adverse outcome affecting a person.

Every verification

People & identity

Financial

Business & compliance

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Tell us how you onboard business customers and we will show you how it chains together.

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