The riskiest payment to a supplier is the first one. You have no history with them, the money leaves before the goods arrive, and most of what you can verify is public record. Six things, in order, before the first transfer.
The six checks
- Legal name and registration number. The name on the invoice, the name on the bank account, and the name in the public registry should be the same legal person. Ask for the registration number; it is public and it is the fastest way to pin down which company you are actually dealing with.
- Sanctions and export-control lists. Screen the legal name and known aliases against the official lists on the day you decide. A search result with no date is not evidence of anything.
- Who owns it. A clean name on a list tells you nothing if the company is owned by a party that is not clean. Ownership structures are public in many jurisdictions and can be checked.
- Bank details against the registry record. Changes to bank details late in an order are the single most common fraud pattern in cross-border trade. If the new account name does not match the contracted legal entity, treat it as a stop.
- Address and activity consistency. Registered address, the address on the invoice, and the place the goods ship from should form a coherent picture. A residential address for a claimed factory is a question, not evidence.
- A note of what you checked. Date, source, result, decision. This is the part everyone skips and the part that matters if the payment is later questioned.
What public records cannot tell you
| You can check | You cannot check |
|---|
| Registration, legal representative, ownership structure | Internal accounts, bank balances, real financial position |
| Sanctions, export-control and watchlist entries | Whether a deal is permitted in your jurisdiction |
| Public risk indicators that appear in public sources | Whether the supplier will actually deliver |
Being clear about the boundary is not a weakness. It is the difference between a report you can rely on and a report that tells you what you wanted to hear.
Order of operations that saves money
- Run the free list check first — it costs nothing and settles the loudest question.
- Pull the registry record for the legal name. Five minutes, and it either matches the invoice or it does not.
- If ownership is opaque, or the corridor is high-risk, pay for a proper report before the first transfer rather than after the goods are stuck.
Frequently asked
We have traded with them for years. Do we still need this?
The lists change, the company's ownership changes, and bank details change. Re-checking before a payment run is cheap; unwinding a payment to a listed party is not.
Is this only for large orders?
It is mostly for small ones. A large buyer has a compliance team; a small buyer has a first payment, no leverage and a supplier they found online.
What this page does not do. It is not legal advice, and it does not tell you whether to sign, ship or pay. It sets out the public-record checks you can run yourself, plus what a paid report adds on top.
Run the free checkWhat the US$100 report covers