How to Verify a Company in Spain? An Ultimate Guide

Spain offers a promising business environment where tourism sectors regain some of the strength they lost in previous years. After the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the government has been focusing on implementing the Recovery and Resilience Plan in order to boost the overall economy. However, due to multiple challenges, such as increased public debt, complex regulations, and social exclusion, doing business in Spain is not easy. Operating a business in the country is extremely challenging, mainly with regard to business verification and compliance with regulations.

To verify a company in Spain, you will have to face multiple challenges. This can complicate your business operations, impeding company growth in the long run. This is because, in terms of business verification and regulatory compliance, vigilant jurisdiction is required to verify a company in Spain. If you are a business owner, financial institution, or startup considering verifying the legal status of any Spanish organization, this comprehensive guide will help you understand and simplify the business verification procedure.

How to Verify if a Company is Registered in Spain?

If you are looking to verify a company in Spain, you must screen it against the public registry. The official business verification portal in Spain is managed by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). This government portal allows you to look up information on any Spanish company you wish to verify. Besides checking the legal status of the business, you can also get access to legal business information, such as financial data and public alerts issued by foreign regulators.

Step-by-Step Guide to Verify a Company in Spain

On the CNMV portal, in the registration files section, there is an option called “companies search,” where you can search any legal entity with its registered name.

When you press enter, you are taken to the relevant business entity.

This portal allows you to search for a specific business even if you do not have the official name of the company with which it is registered. You can just enter any relevant phrase that forms part of the company’s name, and it will allow you to retrieve information about the business filed officially in CNMV registries.

Challenges to Verify a Company in Spain

While verifying a business at the official portal for company verification in Spain, you will have the following challenges:

• Limited Search Filters

In Spain, the portal only has basic search options, making it difficult for individuals to refine the results or locate specific companies without detail. When verifying a business, there should be multiple input parameters in the portal so that a user can better authenticate it and be fully satisfied. Limited search options on the CNMV portal make it challenging to narrow down searches or find organizations with incomplete information.

• Unfriendly User Interface

If you are a non-Spanish businessperson, you will find it challenging to navigate through the portal because of the unfriendly website interface and insufficient instructions. This can lead to confusion for you, especially if you are using a business verification portal for the first time.

• Access Restrictions

Limited access is another big challenge when verifying a company in Spain. Some of the essential information on the portal is missing, making it challenging for users who need huge amounts of data to analyze the legal standing of an organization. For example, if you immediately want to access a specific type of business information, such as the company’s current status, you will not find it on the CNMV portal.

• Language Barrier

Although the public register website offers both Spanish and English languages, some business data is only available in Spanish, making it challenging for non-native Spanish individuals. For example, when you search for public warnings issued by foreign regulators, the comments are available in Spanish by default. Therefore, you will have to translate the page every time you make a new company search in Spain.

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How to Verify an Ultimate Beneficial Owner UBO in Spain?

The Ultimate Beneficial Owner means a natural person who, directly or indirectly and alone or with others, through any means, has complete effective control over an entity, including thorough ownership or shares or voting rights or an agreement or arrangement or in any other manner: owns or controls directly or indirectly more than 25% of the shares or voting rights in an entity. Spain has passed the UBO Register legislation that allows members of the public to receive information about the ultimate beneficiary of the Spanish legal entities, as well as any other entities or organizations lacking legal status. To verify a company in Spain, collecting UBO information is critical to ensuring compliance with AML regulations.

The UBO register in Spain is Registro de Titularidades Reales (also known as Register of Real Ownership). It plays a crucial role in the state’s fight against financial crimes such as terrorist funding and money laundering. The RTR collects and holds data on the beneficial owners of legal persons since this information is needed to identify who owns or controls a company. Through our highly efficient enhanced UBO verification method, we can provide you quick access to all you need to know about the ownership structures of a Spanish company.

Conducting AML Checks on Businesses in Spain

In accordance with FATF recommendations, Spain mandates businesses to adopt a risk-based approach to compliance with AML regulations. This entails assessing the risks associated with consumers and matching compliance procedures to the prevailing risks. To verify a company in Spain, there are essentially two types of checks: one is conducted on the organization, and the other is conducted on the individuals running them. Screening a business against the AML rules to ensure compliance, the following checks are applied:

• Sanctions List Check: The official sanctions list holds information on individuals and organizations penalized by the state. The European Commission also keeps a separate sanctions list, with records of all firms and organizations that were incorporated into the EU’s list of sanctioned businesses and persons.
• Adverse Media Check: This check is not only essential in compliance but also a critical component of business verification. KYB guarantees complete transparency and minimizes the potential risk of financial crimes by scanning negative news in media databases for a sanctioned firm or an individual accused of both local and foreign entities.
• PEP-Check: PEPs are influential individuals and are susceptible to involvement in illegal financial activities. The KYB conducts a PEP check against both domestic and foreign politically exposed persons.

Spanish Business License and Certificate Verification

• Agencia Tributaria

Agencia Tributaria (Spanish tax agency) is an official body of customs regulation in Spain. The organization oversees the collection of customs duties, levies, and other regulations connected with the importation and exportation of products into and out of the country and ensures that all its customs laws are obeyed, both nationally and by the EU. Although it does not publish a comprehensive list of licensed businesses, to see if the company is licensed, you need to refer to specific registries to see whether it is compliant.

• Banco de España

Banco de España (Bank of Spain) is a public entity that is responsible for supervising the Spanish banking system and other financial intermediaries functioning in Spain. To learn the legal status of a fintech business, bank, or any other financial institution, you can view the list of licensed and registered entities. The KYB assists you in providing this list along with other important documents to streamline your company verification process.

• Agencia Española de Protección de Datos

The Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (the Spanish Data Protection Agency) is Spain’s national data protection authority. Its main activities are protecting personal data and privacy rights and enforcing compliance with the GDPR, as well as other applicable national privacy laws. The task of AEPD is to safeguard people’s data privacy and to ensure that both the public and private sectors are protected. It also lists public administrations that have been sanctioned for breaches of standard data protection regulations.

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The KYB – Your Partner In Business Success

If you need to verify a company in Spain, you will face multiple hassles, such as language barriers, complex navigation, limited searches, and website intricacies. The challenges multiply when you have to identify the ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) to ensure that the business is transparent and prevent the potential risk of financial fraud. With our API-integrated software, we provide all the essential company data required for complete business screening.

To mitigate challenges related to corporate verification, rely on The KYB for fast and business verification services in real-time. We consolidate data from over 250 countries and states and 300M+ legal entities. Contact The KYB today to verify your business in Spain and ensure compliance with international regulations. As a business verification solutions provider, we will give you quick access to multiple primary source documents, which you can access with just a simple click and one platform.