Canada KYB: verify a federal corporation from the register

For a fintech or a marketplace onboarding a Canadian business, the register check is the first KYB step. The federal register covers some of your applicants and not others, so know which.

The check

Ask for the corporation number or the Business Number and call GET /companies/search?country=CA with it. A match tells you the corporation exists on the federal register and reads its state.

Check	Field	Reads as
Exists	company_number, company_name	A match on the federal register.
Name agrees	company_name, registry_details	Legal name; the second-language form is in the other names.
Statute	local_legal_form	CBCA or the Canada Cooperatives Act (or a historic federal form).
Alive	status, status_code	active, or active_strike_off_pending / in_dissolution (intent to dissolve or dissolution pending), merged (amalgamated), deregistered (dissolved or discontinued).
Where	address, city, postal_code, region	The registered address and the province or territory.
Tax link	business_number	The 9-digit BN, to join with the applicant's tax documents.

Staying current

Add the corporation to POST /monitor for a webhook when its status, name, legal form or registered address changes, for example when it is struck for non-compliance or amalgamates. The register is read daily; a change is dated by the read that first shows it, none before the first load in October 2026.

What is not covered

• Provincial and territorial companies. Quebec REQ, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and the other provincial registers are not served. An applicant incorporated under provincial law gets no match even though it exists: verify it on the provincial register.
• Not-for-profit corporations and sole proprietors or partnerships. Not served.
• Directors and owners. There are no officers in the record, so beneficial ownership comes from the applicant and other sources.
• Insolvency. No insolvency notices; bankruptcy and insolvency sit with other bodies.
• Activity code and share capital. The register data carries neither.

In a KYB flow

Use the register match as the identity step for federal corporations and route "no match" to a manual or provincial check rather than a rejection. Screening, ownership and the compliance decision are separate steps that remain yours. See KYB onboarding for the generic flow and federal vs provincial search for how to tell the registers apart.

Canada is included in every plan at no upcharge. The 14-day free trial includes 500 credits, needs a card and charges nothing; Starter (EUR 9.99 a month, 1,000 credits) follows unless you cancel. A company record costs 1 credit; an error response costs nothing. See pricing for the plans.

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Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Corporations Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada)