Why Thorough Due Diligence of Counterparties Matters

In modern business, vetting counterparties is a mandatory element of the security and risk-management system. A thorough check of a partner lets you confirm their reliability and avoid negative consequences. Neglecting this check can lead to serious problems: fines from the tax authorities, administrative cases and reputational losses (How to vet a counterparty before signing — Counterparty due-diligence guide). If you sign a contract with a shell company or a firm embroiled in lawsuits, for example, your business is exposed both financially and legally. So due diligence on counterparties when choosing a partner helps prevent a range of risks:

• Legal risks: the counterparty may turn out to be incapacitated (liquidated, disqualified), which means the contract could be challenged or left unfulfilled. A check reveals the company’s status and the powers of its manager, preventing a situation where the contract is signed by an unauthorised person.
• Tax risks: the tax service requires a company to exercise caution when choosing partners. If a counterparty turns out to be fictitious and involved in tax-evasion schemes, your organisation may be denied tax deductions and have taxes reassessed. Regular checking confirms that the partner’s business is real and that they pay taxes in good faith (How to vet a counterparty before signing — Counterparty due-diligence guide).
• Financial risks: analysing a counterparty lets you assess their solvency. Discovered debts, lawsuits or signs of imminent bankruptcy of a partner are a signal that obligations may not be met. This helps avoid losses from unpaid supplies or failed projects.
• Reputational risks: a company’s business reputation suffers if it works with unreliable or notorious firms. By vetting partners, you protect your reputation from ties to fraudsters, corrupt parties or sanctioned companies. In the eyes of clients and regulators, working only with vetted counterparties demonstrates responsible business conduct.

So vetting counterparties is an investment in the stability of your business. Below we look at which information sources are available for such checks (with a focus on Russia and the CIS), how to use specialised services, and provide a checklist of key parameters and practical examples of spotting risks.

Data sources for vetting counterparties

There are many open and semi-open sources that let you gather information about any company or sole proprietor. They include official state registries and directories, as well as commercial systems and data aggregators. Below is a list of the main resources and their capabilities (the examples are drawn from the Russian and CIS market):

Data source	Capabilities and information provided	Access
Federal Tax Service (FTS) — the EGRUL/EGRIP company registers	Official records of the state registration of legal entities and sole proprietors. They let you obtain a register extract with the basic information: name, registration numbers (OGRN, INN), registration date, legal address, details of the manager and founders, charter capital and status (active, in liquidation, etc.). Data on licences, reorganisations, liquidation and unreliable records is also available.	Open, free on the FTS website or by requesting an extract.
Rosstat (the state statistics service)	Statistical codes and registers. On registration a company receives activity and classification codes that can be requested through Rosstat services. Together with the FTS, Rosstat also maintains the unified register of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which shows whether a company qualifies as a small or medium business.	Open, most data available by tax number through Rosstat’s online services.
FTS additional registries (“Transparent Business”)	The tax service provides a number of online services for checking reliability: a register of disqualified persons (helps find out whether a manager has been barred), a check of mass-registration addresses (addresses where many firms are registered), a search for firms with unreliable addresses, and a check of mass managers/founders (individuals heading many legal entities). These tools help indirectly identify a shell company.	Open, in the “Transparent Business” section of the FTS website.
Arbitration case file (kad.arbitr.ru)	A database of the country’s arbitration (commercial) courts. It lets you find out which court disputes a company is involved in: claims against or by it, bankruptcy cases, major disputes, appeals. A search by name or tax number returns a list of cases with brief details: claims, amounts, stage of proceedings. Analysing the litigation history shows how litigious a company is and whether there are risks of recovery or signs of insolvency.	Open, free on the official “Electronic Justice” website.
FSSP — enforcement proceedings	The bailiff service’s resource contains information on enforcement proceedings opened against legal entities and sole proprietors. Here you can check whether the counterparty has unfulfilled court decisions to pay debts, fines and other mandatory payments. The debt amount and the status of proceedings are shown. Many open enforcement proceedings are a warning sign of financial trouble or a partner’s bad faith.	Open, search by name/tax number on the bailiff service website.
Fedresurs (fedresurs.ru)	The official register that publishes bankruptcy notices for companies and other legally significant facts about their activity. It lets you find out whether a bankruptcy petition has been filed against a counterparty, whether it is in liquidation, and whether there are notices of charter-capital reduction, pledged assets, etc. Checking this resource protects you from working with a company already on the brink of bankruptcy.	Semi-open: information is free, but some documents require registration or a small fee.
Vestnik gosregistratsii (vestnik-gosreg.ru)	The official journal that publishes notices of important registration events: liquidation of legal entities, reorganisation, upcoming removal of inactive companies from the register, charter-capital reduction. Reviewing these notices lets you learn in advance about a counterparty’s plans to liquidate or about problems with its registration data.	Semi-open: notices are available to all, but detailed viewing may require registration or payment.
RBC Companies (companies.rbc.ru)	A large business portal that aggregates data on all registered companies. A company’s profile shows its activity codes, financial statements, registered trademarks, legal address and contacts, the names of the manager and founders, charter capital and current status.	Open, free.
Rusprofile (rusprofile.ru)	A popular free online service for checking and analysing counterparties. It gathers data from many official sources (FTS, the company register, the bailiff service, arbitration courts, etc.) and presents it in a convenient, structured form. You can see registration data, founders, charter-capital shares, related companies (through common people), and a financial analysis: income and expenses from the statements, profitability indicators, debts. Rusprofile also flags special markers: a mass address, a mass director, the presence of court cases, participation in public procurement, etc.	Open, free for one-off checks; paid reports for extended analytics.
SPARK-Interfax (spark-interfax.ru)	A professional system for the comprehensive assessment of companies, used by security services and banks. It combines more than 40 data sources: registration data, financial statements, arbitration, enforcement proceedings, public-procurement data, checks of affiliations, foreign companies. It produces a reliability index and more than 40 risk factors, with detailed dossiers down to historical data and scoring models.	Commercial, by subscription. Various tariffs, a web interface and an API.
Kontur.Focus (focus.kontur.ru)	An online service for fast, in-depth counterparty checks. It automatically gathers up-to-date data from the company registers, tax services, the bailiff service, arbitration courts, the treasury and dozens of other sources. In a single interface it gives a full picture: registration data, founders and beneficiaries, ties to other companies, financial indicators, tax violations, debts, lawsuits, bankruptcy information, government contracts, licences and even presence on sanctions lists (OpenCorporates: open company data for counterparty checks). It provides ready analytics and risk indicators, plus a monitoring function to track changes in a counterparty.	Semi-open: basic data free or in demo mode, full information by paid subscription. Various tariffs, API integration.
B2BHint (b2bhint.com)	An international company-data aggregator. For Russian companies it provides information from official registers under an open licence: register data, founders, history of changes, sometimes financial statements and court decisions. A feature is that you can search not only Russia but foreign registers too (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Europe, etc.), useful for checking foreign counterparties.	Open, free access (ad-supported).

Note: beyond those listed, there are other resources for vetting counterparties — services such as SBIS and “Glavbukh Counterparty” (from 1C), the Seldon.Basis system, the “ZaChestnyBiznes” portal and others. In public procurement, the register of unscrupulous suppliers (the antimonopoly service) is checked, and banks use their own scoring systems. The choice of tool depends on a company’s needs and budget. In any case it is advisable to use several sources at once — this raises the reliability of the final assessment. Data from official registers is best taken from the primary source or through reliable aggregators that guarantee it is current.

Searching for counterparty information: a review of Kontur.Focus

Kontur.Focus deserves separate attention as one of the most popular services for comprehensive counterparty checks. It is a web platform designed to gather and analyse information about companies in a “single window” mode. Below we look at what Kontur.Focus offers and how to use it to vet a partner.

Data sources and functionality. Kontur.Focus integrates more than 30 official information sources. In a counterparty’s profile you will find:

• Registration data from the company registers. The service pulls up-to-date extracts from the tax registers. You can see the registration numbers, registration date, current status, legal address, information about the manager and founders, the charter capital and participants’ shares. If the tax service has flagged unreliable information (doubts about the address or manager, for example), Focus reflects this.
• Related persons and organisations. Focus automatically searches for affiliations: it shows which other firms the director or founders appear in. This helps identify groups of companies and understand the ownership structure. Branches and representative offices are also visible.
• Financial statements and analysis. If a company files financial statements, Focus shows the key financial indicators — revenue, profit/loss, assets, liabilities. On that basis it builds an express analysis of the financial condition and the dynamics over recent years (growth or decline in revenue, profit, etc.).
• Debts and arrears. Information on tax arrears and account suspensions is integrated via the tax services. In addition, an enforcement-proceedings block shows all open recoveries with the bailiff service — debt amounts, dates and the status of cases. This immediately gives a sense of whether the company meets its financial obligations.
• Arbitration cases. Kontur.Focus shows all the company’s court disputes in the arbitration courts. For each case it gives the number, the substance of the dispute, the amount and the current state. You can quickly assess how many claims have been filed against the company and for how much.
• Bankruptcies and liquidations. The service tracks Fedresurs publications for the company: whether bankruptcy petitions have been filed, whether a monitoring procedure has begun, whether an administrator has been appointed. Information from the registration journal about a decision to liquidate or reorganise is also visible. If a partner is on the brink of bankruptcy, Focus warns about it with red flags.
• Government contracts and state registers. Kontur.Focus is integrated with public-procurement data: you can see whether the company has taken part in tenders, signed government contracts, and whether it is in the register of unscrupulous suppliers. Licences are also shown (for activities that require them) — their presence, number and validity.
• Sanctions lists and special checks. A topical addition is a check against global sanctions lists. Focus cross-references the company and its related parties with sanctions lists (US, EU, UK, etc.). Even if the organisation itself is not sanctioned but its beneficiary is on a list, this will be reflected (OpenCorporates: open company data for counterparty checks). For many sectors (finance, exports) such information is critical. Focus also has a compliance module for anti-money-laundering checks that extends the KYC functionality.

How to run a check in Kontur.Focus. Working with the service is fairly intuitive. It is enough to know the tax number or the company name: enter it in the search and you get the organisation’s card. There the information is split into tabs: general information, managers and ties, finance, courts, checks, and so on. For a comprehensive check it is worth paying attention to the following sections:

• Details and the register: verify that the basic details match those the counterparty gave you (name, address, tax number, director’s name). Check how long the company has been on the market and whether it is in liquidation.
• Founders and beneficiaries: see who the ultimate owners of the business are. If it is a complex structure with parent companies, Focus shows the chain. Note whether the founders are “mass” (the same person in dozens of firms).
• Related companies: study which other firms are linked through common managers or founders. If those firms have a poor history (bankruptcies, debts), that is a warning sign. Focus lets you jump to a related company’s card in a single click.
• Finance: assess the counterparty’s scale — revenue, assets, net profit. Figures that are too low (for the large projects claimed) may indicate that the partner lacks resources. A sharp deterioration in recent years may point to a crisis.
• Debts and courts: check the “claims and arrears” blocks — whether there are large sums to be recovered or frequent disputes with the tax office or suppliers. One or two disputes are normal, but dozens of cases or unpaid debts signal high risk.
• Special markers: Kontur.Focus visually highlights key risks with red icons — bankrupt status, an unreliable address, a disqualified director, presence on sanctions lists. Pay attention to all such marks. If needed, you can generate a report from Focus to attach to your internal dossier on the counterparty.

Advantages of Kontur.Focus: one of the main pluses is time saving — you do not need to manually visit dozens of sites; the data is already gathered and analysed. The service ensures the data is highly current, as it updates daily (some data in real time). Clarity matters too: everything is structured, with charts and indices. For companies with large volumes of checks there are API integrations and automatic monitoring (you receive alerts if something changes with a vetted partner — a new director, a new lawsuit, etc.). As a result, Kontur.Focus has effectively become a standard tool for security and compliance services: with “a single screen” you can assess a counterparty’s reliability and make a balanced decision about cooperation.

Of course, you pay for the convenience and breadth — full access is paid. For small businesses, though, there is limited free functionality (a few checks a month or a brief reference). Many start with free demo access to gauge the value, and then embed the tool into their processes.

A checklist of parameters for due diligence on counterparties

When checking a counterparty’s reliability, it is important to look at a combination of factors. Below is a checklist of key parameters to help you assess a partner company in a structured way:

1. Registration status and length of operation. Make sure the organisation is officially registered and has “active” status. If a company is in liquidation or bankruptcy, working with it is extremely risky. Also look at the registration date: a firm less than a year old is potentially less reliable (there is a chance it is a shell company). Of course, not every young firm is a shell, but the age of the business is one of the factors.
2. Legal address. Compare the registration address with the one the counterparty provides. Check the address via the tax service for mass registration: a mass address is where dozens or hundreds of legal entities are listed. A mass address is not always bad (business centres really do have many offices), but for the tax office it is a trigger for a thorough check. If the address is clearly a mass one, ask the partner to confirm the actual place of business.
3. The manager and founders. Study who the director and owners are. Warning signs: a manager formally listed in many companies (a “mass director”), or a founder who is a front (a student or pensioner with no business experience). The tax service provides registers of disqualified persons — make sure the director has not been stripped of the right to manage organisations. If one and the same individual founded and heads dozens of firms with minimal charter capital, there is a high chance this is a network of shell companies. In that case the risks multiply.
4. Charter capital. The size of the charter capital is no guarantee of reliability in itself, but it shows the founders’ level of commitment. A minimal capital is often found at shell companies or simply small firms. If you are dealing with a large potential partner whose capital is minimal, that is a reason to clarify the details. A suspiciously low capital disproportionate to the declared activity may indicate that the owners are not investing in the business. Still, this factor must be assessed together with others — many honest small companies also have minimal capital.
5. Main activity code. Check the company’s main registered activity and whether it matches the activity you plan to cooperate on. If a firm is registered as, say, “retail trade” but offers you construction services, it may have recently changed its profile or be working informally. A mismatch of activities can indicate bad faith or that the company is expanding without updating its data. A reliable counterparty usually has an activity code matching its real work.
6. Tax discipline. Open data lets you indirectly assess tax risks: whether the company appears on tax-debtor lists, whether its accounts have been suspended by the tax office. If the tax service has already flagged the counterparty as a violator (added it to the list of companies with unreliable data, for example), this is easy to check on the tax website. A good-faith partner files reporting and pays taxes on time. You can ask the counterparty for a copy of a no-tax-debt certificate — the law does not directly require this in general, but a decent company usually has no objection to providing such information.
7. Financial position. Where possible, review the company’s financial statements (the balance sheet and the profit-and-loss statement). This is available through the tax service (if filed), aggregators such as RBC or Rusprofile, or the counterparty itself may provide fresh data. It is important to understand whether the indicators are stable — is there steady profit, revenue growth, an acceptable level of debt load. If the firm has shown losses in recent years or its income is falling sharply, there is a risk of insolvency. Also note the size of the business: a company with annual revenue of $15K is hardly a reliable supplier for a multi-million-dollar contract.
8. Debts and lawsuits. Be sure to check whether the counterparty has enforcement proceedings with the bailiffs and open court disputes. A few small claims are a working situation, but if a company has dozens of claims from creditors or suppliers, that is a clear red flag. Likewise, information about large unpaid debts indicates that the partner may already be on the verge of default. While checking the litigation history, see whether the counterparty figures in tax-offence or fines cases — constant disputes with state bodies are also a warning sign.
9. Ties to other legal entities. Studying the ties helps uncover hidden risks. Suppose you find that your potential partner’s founder previously owned a company that went bankrupt with large debts. That may mean the same people opened a new firm after the old one’s bankruptcy — a scheme to escape debts. Or the director of your counterparty’s firm simultaneously runs several companies, one of which has been caught in fraud. Such ties are not obvious without a check, but modern services (Kontur.Focus, SPARK) reveal them quickly. If you find overlaps with problem firms, discuss it with the partner and require explanations or additional security for the obligations.
10. Reputation and public information. Do not limit yourself to registers — search for information about the company in the news and online. There may be media mentions of court proceedings, fines or scandals involving this entity. Check whether the firm is in the register of unscrupulous suppliers (if it took part in public procurement and failed to fulfil a contract, it may have been added there). Look at reviews from counterparties or clients (though they are not always objective). Business reputation is made up of many factors, and open sources will give only objective facts, but you must not ignore them.

Using this checklist, you will get a full picture of a potential partner. It is important to assess the combination of factors: a single warning signal is not yet a reason to walk away from a deal (the young age of a firm is offset by a transparent structure and good finances, for example), but if there are several signs of risk — it is better to tighten control or look for a more reliable alternative.

Case studies: spotting risks in practice

Let us look at a few typical situations where checking a counterparty helps spot problems in time:

• Case 1: a mass address and a “shell company”. A company, Alpha LLC, approached with a proposal for a large supply deal. On checking, it emerged that Alpha’s legal address coincided with the registration address of more than 200 other firms. Moreover, Alpha LLC’s charter capital was the bare minimum, and its director was listed as a founder in a dozen more organisations, two of which had recently been liquidated. These signs (a mass address, minimal capital, a “serial” founder) indicated that this was most likely a shell with no real operations. The potential contract with Alpha LLC was postponed pending additional guarantees (prepayment or a bank guarantee). The information was later confirmed — several firms at the same address were caught by the tax office in violations. Thanks to the check, the initiating company avoided dealing with a shell and the associated risks.
• Case 2: a fictitious director. A large distributor’s security service was vetting a new client, Beta LLC, engaged in wholesale trade. Formally everything looked decent: the company had existed for three years, revenue was growing. But analysis of the founding data revealed an unusual detail: the general director, also the sole founder, was a young man born in 1998. Additional research showed that he figured as the head of 18 different companies across the country, in unrelated industries. This is a clear sign of a nominal director on whom bad-faith parties register firms. A deeper check confirmed it: the actual beneficiaries of Beta were other people, and the young man was a front. It also turned out that some of the companies he headed had unpaid debts. On this basis the counterparty was refused deferred payment and worked with only on a prepayment basis, which protected the distributor from possible non-payments.
• Case 3: a link to bankruptcy. A manufacturing firm was considering a contractor, StroyInvest LLC, for a large construction project. A discovery on Fedresurs gave cause for concern: two years earlier the person now listed as StroyInvest’s founder had been the bankruptcy administrator of another construction company. Moreover, that company had gone bankrupt with multi-million-dollar debts to suppliers. Additional analysis of the ties through SPARK showed that a number of StroyInvest employees had previously worked at the bankrupt firm. This set of facts pointed to the risk that the new company had been created by the same people after the old one’s bankruptcy (a “phoenix company”). The firm requested a detailed work plan and bank guarantees from StroyInvest, and in the end preferred another contractor. As time showed, the decision was correct: StroyInvest later ran into financial trouble too and missed deadlines on another project.
• Case 4: a previously unscrupulous supplier. A company purchasing raw materials chose a new supplier, sole proprietor Sidorov. A check against the register of unscrupulous suppliers revealed that three years earlier a person with the same name and region had been added to it for failing a government contract. Several enforcement proceedings for fines were also recorded against him. Although the sole proprietor insisted it was a namesake, they decided not to risk it. They declined to cooperate, and six months later it became known that a fraud case had been opened against the proprietor. Thus, turning to the antimonopoly service’s register of unscrupulous suppliers helped avoid working with a problem counterparty.

These examples show how varied the warning signs can be and how important it is not to miss them. In one case the decisive role was played by analysing the address and founders, in another by searching court and register data. The universal lesson from practice: every risk fact found should be examined carefully. If something seems suspicious, it is better to deepen the check, ask the counterparty for clarification, or require additional security. Better to spend time on a preliminary check than to face unforeseen problems during the cooperation.

Recommendations for building an internal KYC/compliance process

To manage counterparty risk effectively, a single one-off check is not enough. You need to organise systematic work on KYC (Know Your Customer) and compliance principles inside your company. Here are recommendations for building such a process:

• Develop an internal counterparty-vetting policy. Set out at the level of corporate rules what is checked and how when choosing a new partner. Define reliability criteria: no tax arrears, no liquidation status, a certain threshold of financial indicators, etc. Also specify when an enhanced check is required (the deal exceeds a certain limit, the counterparty is from another region or country, a higher-risk sector).
• Appoint someone responsible for compliance. In a small firm this function can be performed by the director or chief accountant; in a large one, by the security or compliance department. It is important to have personal accountability for vetting partners. The responsible person should be familiar with the information sources and able to use them.
• Use checklists and standardised forms. Based on the checklist above, draw up a counterparty-vetting form — a table or document where all parameters are recorded: the register-extract date, the director’s name, whether the address was checked for mass registration, whether there are debts, and so on. This ensures uniformity and that nothing is missed. Once the form is filled in, it should be clear whether the counterparty can be approved or whether additional measures are needed.
• Keep a dossier on each counterparty. All the information gathered (extracts, check screenshots, copies of the counterparty’s documents) should be kept in a separate file. First, this is useful for periodic re-checks — you will not have to gather it again. Second, in the event of a tax check you will be able to prove you exercised due diligence by providing the archive of checks.
• Verify information with the counterparty itself. Do not hesitate to ask the partner for supporting documents: a copy of the director’s passport, the charter, proof of tax registration, licences (if relevant), the balance sheet for the last year. A good-faith company is usually willing to provide these. Cross-checking the information received from the counterparty against open sources helps spot discrepancies (if the partner is trying to hide a change of director or a court dispute, for example).
• Classify counterparties by risk level. Introduce the practice of assigning vetted partners a reliability status. For example, green — reliable (minimal risk, cooperate on general terms); yellow — medium risk (additional conditions required: prepayment, a guarantee); red — high risk (cooperation prohibited or only after management approval). Such grading helps managers understand on what terms they can work with a given client or supplier. The criteria for assigning a status should be clear and based on the results of the check.
• Regularly monitor active partners. A check is needed not only “at the entrance” but during cooperation too. A counterparty’s situation can change: today they are doing fine, a year later problems begin. So it is advisable to update information on key partners at least once a year. Automatic monitoring is convenient: many services (Kontur.Focus, SPARK, RBC) offer alerts about changes (a change of director, new court cases, bankruptcy). Subscribe to such notifications for the companies most important to you.
• Track changes in legislation. Requirements for due diligence on counterparties may tighten, especially in AML (anti-money-laundering) and sanctions compliance. Banks, for example, are obliged to check clients’ beneficiaries, and it is useful for businesses to adopt these practices too when a counterparty is financially significant. Stay aware of the current lists of risky taxpayers and new tax-service tools (the tax authority regularly rolls out new business-transparency instruments). Train the responsible staff in modern KYC methods.
• Use specialised IT solutions. If the number of counterparties is large, checking each one manually can be labour-intensive. IT systems help: from the online services mentioned to integrating data into your CRM/ERP. You can set up automatic collection of register extracts by tax number when a new counterparty is entered into the CRM, for example, or connect a service API for an instant risk report right inside your system. For large companies it makes sense to deploy comprehensive compliance platforms that aggregate all checks (from financial to sanctions) and keep a history.

The systematic “know your partner” approach pays off many times over. It disciplines employees when choosing contractors and clients, reduces the chance of ending up in an unpleasant situation, and demonstrates your responsibility to regulators. The main thing is to make the vetting process a regular practice built into your business processes (signing a contract, approving deferred payment, etc.).

Conclusion

Regularly vetting counterparties is critical for business resilience. It is not a one-off campaign but a continuous function that should be performed at the start of cooperation and throughout it. As we have seen, risks spotted in time (legal, financial, tax, reputational) help you make the right decisions — from additional security measures to walking away from a dangerous deal. With tightening oversight from the tax authorities and the general transparency of data, every company should exercise due diligence on counterparties.

Fortunately, vetting partners today is much easier than before: a wealth of open data and effective tools is available. Using a combination of official sources (the tax service, Fedresurs, the courts) and specialised services (such as Kontur.Focus, SPARK, Rusprofile, RBC and others), you can compile a full dossier on any organisation in a matter of hours. Much can be automated and tailored to your business — connecting alerts on the status of important clients or embedding the check into your IT system, for example. This is especially relevant as the number of counterparties grows and manually monitoring them all becomes impossible.

Remember that your company’s reputation and financial security depend largely on the counterparties you work with. Deals are built on trust, and vetting is the tool that justifies that trust. Automate the process, but do not make it a formality — analyse the information you obtain and involve security experts when in doubt. By adopting a systematic approach to vetting (in the spirit of KYC/AML), you protect your business from many dangers, from a simple unpaid debt to unwitting participation in corrupt or fraudulent schemes.

To sum up, thorough counterparty vetting is not unnecessary red tape but a foundation of long-term success and business resilience. It lets you sleep soundly, knowing your partners are reliable and your deals are lawful. In the age of digitisation almost all the necessary data is a few clicks away, and ignoring it would be unforgivable. Invest time and resources in compliance now, and you will save far more by avoiding problems later. Your business deserves to have only good-faith, vetted partners!

Data sources and notes:

• RBC Companies — “How to check a counterparty for reliability”. A list of the information available from open sources: activity types, financial statements, trademarks, address, founders, charter capital, status, etc. (Checking counterparties by tax number | RBC Companies) Reliability criteria are also given: a business age of more than 1 year, the absence of a mass address, an activity code matching the real work, stable finances, etc.
• RBC Pro — “How to check a counterparty so the tax service does not reassess taxes, a checklist”. The consequences of ignoring a check are set out: fines from the tax authority, administrative cases, reputational risks (How to check a counterparty so the tax service does not reassess taxes). The importance of due diligence on the company’s part is shown.
• Gendalf (business portal) — “7 official sources that are mandatory for vetting counterparties”. It describes the tax service tools for identifying mass addresses and managers and unreliable records (Which official sites to check a counterparty on), the capabilities of the arbitration case file, Fedresurs, the register of disqualified persons and others. The recommendations are divided by levels of checking (basic, medium, high).
• Kontur.Focus — the official site and materials. The service aggregates data from more than 30 sources, including the tax service, the company registers, Rosstat, arbitration, the bailiff service, the treasury (government contracts) and so on, providing a comprehensive analysis of a counterparty on a single screen (Kontur.Focus: checking a counterparty by tax number or registration number …). It offers sanctions checks, change monitoring and API integration for corporate use.
• VC.ru — Ranking of the best counterparty-checking services 2024. It notes that Rusprofile obtains data from official sources (the tax service, the bailiff service, the company registers, etc.) and has won users’ trust (Checking counterparties by tax number: ranking of the best checking services in 2024, Pravo on vc.ru). Seldon.Basis gathers register, arbitration, financial-statement and public-procurement data and lets you analyse market ties. A comparison of the functionality of Kontur.Focus, MoyoDelo, SPARK and others helps a business choose a tool for its tasks.
• Soware.ru — A comparison of Kontur.Focus and Rusprofile (2025). Kontur.Focus is a service for detailed checks, letting you analyse the most important information about any company from Russia, Belarus or Kazakhstan (Kontur.Focus or Rusprofile: a comparison — 2025). Rusprofile is a service that provides a wealth of information about legal entities in structured form. Both suit companies of any size and belong to the category of counterparty-reliability checking systems.
• The practical examples are based on typical situations from real security-service cases. The signs of shell companies (a mass address, a nominal director, minimal capital) and their risks are confirmed by tax-service guidance and arbitration practice. The register of unscrupulous suppliers (the antimonopoly service) is available on the public-procurement portal and shows companies that have evaded fulfilling government contracts (Which official sites to check a counterparty on) — a counterparty’s presence in this register is treated as a serious negative factor.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you vet a counterparty before signing a contract?

Check registration in the company registers, court cases in the arbitration case file, tax arrears, financial statements and the history of the founders. I use Kontur.Focus to automate this process.

Which services are best for vetting counterparties?

The main ones are Kontur.Focus, SPARK-Interfax and Rusprofile. For international counterparties — Dun & Bradstreet, World-Check, LexisNexis. The choice depends on the geography of your business.

What should a KYC process for counterparties include?

At minimum: checking the founding documents, the beneficial owners, financial stability, litigation and tax history, and screening against sanctions lists.

How often should counterparties be re-checked?

I recommend an annual reassessment for key counterparties and real-time monitoring of changes in the registers. For high-risk ones — once a quarter.

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