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Guide · Belgium · KBO/BCE

What is the KBO (the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises)?

The KBO is the register behind Belgian company records. Here is how the enterprise number and its check digits work, what a Belgian record holds, and what an API can serve from it. KBO number vs VAT number, in short: the VAT number is BE plus the same ten digits, for an enterprise that is VAT-registered. To look a number up, use the KBO number search or the Belgian VAT number check (both in Dutch); the French-language guide is Numéro BCE : c’est quoi et comment le vérifier ?

Key facts: Belgium

Register: Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO/BCE)

Identifiers Enterprise number

  • Company recordsYes
  • OfficersNo
  • Insolvency noticesIn the status only
  • Corporate eventsRegister changes
  • MonitoringYes
  • Financial statementsListed companies
  • VAT numberFrom the register, if VAT-registered
  • NACE classYes
  • UpdatedEvery working day

Financial statements are on the Scale plan and above; the other plans and the free trial get 10 calls a month.

Price From EUR 9.99 a month (Starter plan)

The short version

The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen in Dutch, Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises in French, KBO/BCE) is the Belgian register of enterprises, kept by the FPS Economy, and it is where the Belgian company records Prometiam serves come from. Every legal entity in it carries an enterprise number: ten digits written 4-3-3, such as 0417.497.106 for Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The Belgian VAT number is BE plus the same ten digits, so a Belgian integration can key on one number for both.

Who supplies what

NameWhat it is
KBO / BCEThe Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, in Dutch Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen and in French Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises. Its record is the source of the legal name, legal form, status, registered address, activity code and dates.
FPS EconomyThe Federal Public Service Economy, which keeps the register. Reuse of its data names the source and the date of the update, and the API reports that date as data_as_of.
Enterprise numberThe ten-digit number of a legal entity, written 0NNN.NNN.NNN, for example 0417.497.106. The key you store for the register record.
VAT numberBE plus the ten digits of the enterprise number, for an entity that is VAT-registered.

The enterprise number

An enterprise number (ondernemingsnummer, numéro d’entreprise) is ten digits, written in groups of 4-3-3 as 0NNN.NNN.NNN, and it starts with 0 or 1. The dots and spaces are optional: 0417.497.106, 0417 497 106 and 0417497106 are the same number.

The last two digits are check digits: 97 minus the first eight digits modulo 97. For 0417.497.106 the first eight digits, 04174971, leave 91 when divided by 97, and 97 minus 91 is 06, which is how the number ends. That makes a Belgian enterprise number one of the identifiers you can reject offline, in your own code, before it costs a call. The API verifies the same check digits server-side, and the identifier validator runs the arithmetic in the browser.

The EU VAT number of a Belgian company is BE plus the ten digits: 0417.497.106 becomes BE0417497106. Whether a VAT number is registered and active is a separate question that only VIES answers; the VIES validation guide covers it.

What a Belgian record holds

FieldNotes
Legal nameThe official name, in Dutch, French or German as registered.
Legal formThe KBO legal-form code with its label: for example 014 for the NV/SA (public limited company), 610 for the BV/SRL (private limited company) and 017 for the VZW/ASBL (non-profit association). local_legal_form holds the code and local_legal_form_name the label; legal_form is the standard abbreviation.
StatusOne of active, in_dissolution, in_liquidation, in_restructuring, bankrupt, merged or deregistered. A company in dissolution, liquidation, restructuring or bankruptcy shows as its own status, so it is not served as plain active.
Registered addressThe address of the registered seat: street, postal code and city.
Activity codeThe main activity in NACE-BEL 2025, which corresponds to NACE Rev. 2.1. Served where the register publishes one.
Start dateThe start date of the entity.

What Prometiam serves for Belgium

Company records from the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO/BCE): legal name, legal form, status, registered address, activity code and dates; with register-change events and monitoring, but no officers, no registry-compliance signal and no insolvency notices (a bankruptcy shows in the company status and in the register-change events), and enterprises of natural persons (eenmanszaak / entreprise individuelle) are never served.

In plain terms: you can resolve an enterprise number, a Belgian VAT number or a company name into the record and see its status. You cannot get directors, signatories or beneficial owners for Belgium from this API, and financial statements only for listed companies (their ESEF annual financial reports). Register-change events and monitoring are available, but Belgium has no insolvency notices because it is not one of the sixteen insolvency markets (FR, DE, GB, AT, CH, NO, FI, US, NL, DK, HR, SE, ES, LV, EE, SG). Legal persons only: an eenmanszaak (entreprise individuelle) is never served, so a search for one returns nothing even though the business exists. Belgium is updated every working day.

Querying Belgian companies from an API

The same call as every other live country, with country=BE:

# by enterprise number (dots and spaces are optional; the check digits are verified)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \
  "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/companies/search?company_number=0417.497.106&country=BE"

# by the VAT number (BE and the ten digits)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \
  "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/companies/search?vat=BE0417497106&country=BE"

# by name, for a type-ahead field
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \
  "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/companies/search?name=proximus&country=BE"

A number whose check digits do not match, or of the wrong length, is answered with a 400 validation error, so a typo never looks like a missing company. The free enterprise number lookup runs the same call with a shared key (there is also a Dutch-language KBO number search), and the Belgium company data API page walks through validation and autocomplete.

Belgian insolvency

There are no Belgian insolvency notices in the API. Corporate insolvency notices cover sixteen markets (FR, DE, GB, AT, CH, NO, FI, US, NL, DK, HR, SE, ES, LV, EE, SG), corporate only, and Belgium is not one of them. What you do get is the register’s own state on the company record: a company in dissolution, in liquidation, in restructuring or bankrupt carries that in status, and a change of status also appears in the register-change events.

FAQ

What is the KBO?
The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen; in French the BCE, Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises), the Belgian register of enterprises kept by the FPS Economy. It is the source of the Belgian company records Prometiam serves.

What is a Belgian enterprise number?
Ten digits written 0NNN.NNN.NNN, starting with 0 or 1, for example 0417.497.106. The last two digits are check digits: 97 minus the first eight digits modulo 97.

What is the difference between the enterprise number and the VAT number?
The Belgian VAT number is BE plus the same ten digits, for an entity that is VAT-registered. Whether it is registered and active is a question only VIES answers.

Does Prometiam serve Belgian directors or company events?
Company events yes, directors no. Belgian records are company-level: legal name, legal form, status, registered address, activity code and dates. There are no officers and no registry-compliance signal for Belgium. Register-change events (name, status, legal form and registered address; dated when the change first appears in the register data, none before 2026-09-30) and monitoring are available.

Does Prometiam have Belgian insolvency notices?
No. Belgium is not one of the sixteen insolvency markets (FR, DE, GB, AT, CH, NO, FI, US, NL, DK, HR, SE, ES, LV, EE, SG), and insolvency notices are corporate only. A bankruptcy, a liquidation or a restructuring appears in the company's status and in the register-change events.

Are Belgian sole traders included?
No. Enterprises of natural persons (eenmanszaak / entreprise individuelle) are never served, so a search for one returns nothing even though the business exists.