Shanghai. Credit checks of Chinese companies have been made significantly easier with an online National Company Credit Information database providing free information about Chinese domestic companies to the public.
China’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce has launched the National Company Credit Information System which is an online resource that provides free information about companies to the public. This followed the Provisional Rules on Enterprise Information Disclosure act which took effect on October 1 last year. The new disclosure act require all companies, foreign and domestic in the PRC to submit annual credit reports for public disclosure via the publicly available Enterprise Credit and Information Disclosure System which can be accessed online on a real-time basis. With the new online database, anyone can simply log in and access relevant financial, asset and legal liabilities information – greatly improving financial transparency among businesses in China.
- This is good news for anyone evaluating suppliers and potential business partners in China, says Per Linden, CEO of the consulting firm Scandic Sourcing. One year ago, credit disclosure companies stopped getting access to tax reports, which made it difficult to make credit checks of Chinese companies. To get accurate info, we had to ask the companies themselves to disclose their annual audit reports, which they may or may not do. Now, the publicly available Credit and Information Disclosure System circumvents all that, and I think this is a big step towards simplifying credit checks in China.
Screenshots from the search function of the new online resource for credit disclosure which Chinese companies (and any other company operating in China) are expected to submit their financial information to.
The information companies are required to provide includes corporate registration data, record filing, chattel equity pledge registration, mortgage registration, and notably administrative penalties levied by the Chinese Administration of Industry and Commerce. Look for the latter when evaluating a potential partner or supplier; it’s an important indicator of a company’s creditworthiness and integrity that used to be confidential. The companies themselves are responsible for the authenticity and legality of the information they disclose and spot checks on the disclosed information will be conducted; third parties may report any information they suspect is false.
Companies that fail to submit their reports in time will be recorded in the directory of companies with abnormal business operations and if the company fail to fulfill their disclosure obligations within three years, they will be recorded in the directory of companies with serious illegal conduct, and their legal representative or person-in-charge will be prohibited from becoming a legal representative or person-in-charge of any other company for three years.
The website can be found here (in Chinese)
http://gsxt.saic.gov.cn/