How to Search Hong Kong Companies Registry for Free: ICRIS, UBI & SCR Explained
Hong Kong's company registry data sits across four authorities, each holding a different slice of the same companies' data. The Companies Registry (CR) operates ICRIS — the public registry portal that holds Cap. 622 incorporation, director, registered-office, and statutory filings. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) issues the Business Registration Number (BRN), which since 27 December 2023 functions as the Unique Business Identifier (UBI) across the entire government data stack. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) holds the public register of licensed financial intermediaries. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) operates HKEXnews and the listed-company disclosure layer.
For anyone running KYB, AML, supplier verification, or beneficial-ownership analysis on Hong Kong counterparties, the landscape changed materially in late 2023 and continued evolving through 2025. The Revamped ICRIS and the new e-Services Portal launched on 27 December 2023, replacing the 18-year-old AQUA platform. The New Inspection Regime (NIR) Phase 3 took effect the same day, restricting director residential addresses and full identification numbers to "specified persons" only. The Company Re-domiciliation Regime entered force on 23 May 2025 — and six non-Hong Kong corporations from Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda had already re-domiciled by year-end. For the equivalent guides covering the rest of the Asia cluster, see how to search ACRA for free, how to search GCIS for Taiwan, and how to access Chinese company data for free.
This guide explains what data lives where, how to access each source legitimately, what the New Inspection Regime actually restricts, and how the Significant Controllers Register (SCR) works in practice — including the FATF transparency gap that distinguishes Hong Kong from jurisdictions with central public BO registers.
First, who actually owns this data?
Before any cost or dataset map makes sense, it helps to know which institution owns which slice. Four government bodies control the entire Hong Kong company-data layer between them.
Most analyses of "Hong Kong company data" only look at the CR. That misses three things: the UBI link to IRD that lets you join business-registration records to company-registry records on a single key, the SFC licence layer that tells you whether a counterparty is a regulated financial intermediary, and the HKEX disclosure layer for listed companies. A complete profile needs all four sources joined.
Every Hong Kong company-data dataset, mapped
Twelve distinct datasets exist across the four authorities, each with its own access regime. Hong Kong is materially more paywalled than Singapore or Taiwan — most CR document downloads cost HK$22–HK$140 per filing.
Exactly what data is free, paid & restricted
Hong Kong registry data falls into three tiers. The free tier covers basic identity and current status; paid CR document downloads unlock the full company particulars, directors, charges, and annual-return history; the restricted tier — Protected Information under the New Inspection Regime — holds director residential addresses, full identification numbers, and the Significant Controllers Register contents.
- Legal entity name (English & Chinese)
- CR Number (7 digits)
- UBI / Business Registration Number (8 digits)
- Current registration status (Live, Dissolved, Struck Off)
- Date of incorporation
- Company type (Private, Public, Limited by Guarantee, Non-HK)
- Name-change history
- Confirmation that an SCR is maintained (fact, not contents)
- Company particulars search (HK$22)
- Current directors and company secretary
- Registered office address
- Issued share capital and share-class breakdown
- Annual Return image (most recent — HK$22)
- Full Annual Return history
- Register of Charges and mortgages
- Certified copy of Certificate of Incorporation (HK$170)
- Certified copies of filed documents (HK$60+)
- Full image record of any filed document
- Search report on directors / company secretaries
- Director residential address
- Full ID card / passport number
- Correspondence address shown publicly instead
- Partial ID number shown publicly instead
- SCR contents — controller identity
- Controller ID number, residential address
- Nature and extent of significant control
- Date control was acquired / ceased
Dataset-by-dataset summary
The same data viewed by source rather than by tier:
| Dataset | Source | Cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cyber Search — basic company info e-Services Portal |
CR | Free | CR Number, UBI, English & Chinese name, registration status, incorporation date, company type, name-change history. |
| UBI verification Single identifier check |
CR + IRD | Free | Confirms that a given 8-digit identifier is a valid Hong Kong business registration. Joined to CR record on the same key. |
| SFC Public Register Licensed persons & institutions |
SFC | Free | Every licensed corporation, individual representative, authorised institution. Regulated activity types (Type 1–10). |
| HKEXnews Listed-company disclosures |
HKEX | Free | IPO prospectuses, interim & annual reports, Disclosure of Interests filings (substantial shareholders), material announcements. |
| Company particulars search Current corporate state |
CR | HK$22 | Current directors, company secretary, registered office, issued share capital, share-class breakdown. |
| Annual Return image record Form NAR1 |
CR | HK$22 /record | Per-year snapshot of directors, shareholders, share capital. Filed annually for every Hong Kong company. |
| Register of Charges Mortgages & secured lending |
CR | HK$22+ | Charges over company property. Each charge entry includes amount secured, chargee identity, and date created. |
| Certified copies — Certificate of Incorporation For international use |
CR | HK$170 | Certified copy of original Certificate of Incorporation. Required for international banking, M&A, and notarisation workflows. |
| Image records of filed documents Full filing history |
CR | HK$22 each | Image scans of every document filed with the CR over the company's lifetime. Forms NNC1, NAR1, ND2A, change-of-officer, etc. |
| Director residential address Withheld since 27 Dec 2023 |
CR | Restricted | Available only to specified persons under the New Inspection Regime. Correspondence address shown to general public. |
| Director / SCR full ID number Protected Information |
CR | Restricted | Full HKID or passport number. Only partial ID (alphabet + first three digits) shown publicly. |
| SCR contents Significant Controllers |
Company office | Restricted | Identity of significant controllers, ID details, residential addresses, nature and extent of control. Maintained at the company's registered office or RA's office — not centrally at CR. |
Four free, five paid, three restricted. Hong Kong has a public-search regime broader than mainland China but materially more paywalled than Singapore or Taiwan. Source: Companies Registry, IRD, SFC, HKEX (verified May 2026).
CR registry activity, 2024–2025
Hong Kong recorded 140,000+ new company registrations every year through this period, with 2025 setting an all-time high. The 2025 total includes the first cohort of re-domiciled companies under the new regime in force since 23 May 2025.
to 1,430,758
to 1,460,494
to 1,557,103
ICRIS and the e-Services Portal — what's there, how to search
The Integrated Companies Registry Information System (ICRIS) was relaunched on 27 December 2023 as the Revamped ICRIS, alongside a new e-Services Portal at e-services.cr.gov.hk. The system replaced the AQUA-based ICRIS that had been in operation for 18 years. Three relevant search routes:
- Cyber Search Centre — free basic search by company name or CR Number / UBI. Returns the live status, entity type, incorporation date, and confirms that an SCR is maintained.
- Company particulars search (paid) — HK$22 returns the current corporate state including directors, company secretary, registered office, and issued share capital.
- Image record search (paid) — HK$22 per document; the full image of any specific filing — Annual Return (Form NAR1), Notice of Change of Director (Form ND2A), incorporation form (Form NNC1), Specification of Charge (Form NM1), and so on.
For foreign users without a Hong Kong ID, account registration on the e-Services Portal works without a HKID — you can sign up with a passport and a credit card and complete paid searches via the same flow. This is materially more open than mainland China's GSXT (which requires PRC real-name authentication) but more closed than Singapore's Bizfile (where most basic data is free).
The UBI — Hong Kong's unified identifier (since Dec 2023)
Until 26 December 2023, Hong Kong used two parallel identifiers for the same company: the CR Number (7-digit) assigned by the Companies Registry at incorporation, and the Business Registration Number (BRN) (8-digit) assigned by the IRD for tax purposes. The two had to be cross-referenced manually, and downstream systems (banks, KYC tools, AP teams) often only held one — making entity resolution awkward.
From 27 December 2023, the BRN became the basis of the Unique Business Identifier (UBI) for all entities administered by the Companies Registrar. The UBI is an 8-digit number that now functions as the single reference key across CR, IRD, and onward to government and business datasets. Where you previously saw a 7-digit CR Number on older incorporation certificates, the post-Dec 2023 system uses the UBI everywhere.
For any Hong Kong KYB workflow built before December 2023, your records likely hold the 7-digit CR Number. From 27 December 2023, the UBI (8-digit, derived from the BRN) is the system-of-record identifier. The CR Number remains visible on legacy incorporation documents. Both still resolve to the same company on the e-Services Portal — but new integrations should use the UBI for forward compatibility and IRD cross-reference.
The UBI is also the input format any production-grade Hong Kong KYB integration should accept. Searches by company name still work, but UBI is the canonical key. Hong Kong company numbers should be normalised to the 8-digit UBI on intake.
Worked example: HSBC (CR 263876)
To make the UBI / CR Number mechanics concrete, here is a real lookup. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited — the founding member of the HSBC Group and the largest bank incorporated in Hong Kong — is a publicly verifiable Hong Kong-incorporated entity. Its CR record looks like this:
263876e-services.cr.gov.hk. Director residential addresses and full ID numbers are not shown publicly — only correspondence addresses and partial IDs are visible (NIR Phase 3, post-27 Dec 2023). To pull the full filing history, charges, share capital, and directors’ correspondence addresses, paid e-Services document downloads apply (HK$22 per record).Two practical points this example surfaces. First, HSBC is one of the oldest continuously registered companies in the Hong Kong register — incorporated in 1866 under the colonial company-law regime that pre-dates Cap. 622. Its CR Number sits in the low six-digit range, far below the seven-digit numbers issued to companies in the 21st century. Any KYB workflow that filters by “newer than year X” on CR Number will miss legacy entities like this. Second, HSBC’s public corporate name is bilingual — the Chinese name 香港上海滙豐銀行有限公司 is the formally registered Chinese name, equally valid for legal purposes. The Hong Kong register holds both. For any cross-border KYB workflow involving mainland China counterparties, normalising on the Chinese name (or accepting it as a search input) materially improves match rates.
HK CR forms by number — quick reference
Hong Kong corporate practitioners refer to CR filings by form number. The most commonly hit forms in KYB workflows:
| Form | What it is | Triggers / use |
|---|---|---|
| NNC1 | Incorporation Form — Company Limited by Shares | Filed at incorporation for a local private or public company limited by shares. Includes proposed name, registered office, directors, company secretary, and initial share capital structure. |
| NNC1G | Incorporation Form — Company Limited by Guarantee | Filed at incorporation for a company limited by guarantee (no share capital). Used by non-profits, professional bodies, schools. |
| NAR1 | Annual Return | Filed annually within 42 days of incorporation anniversary (for local private companies). Per-year snapshot of directors, shareholders, share capital, and registered office. The single most-downloaded paid document for KYB. |
| ND2A | Notice of Change of Director Particulars | Filed when a director’s name, address, or other registered particulars change. Must be filed within 15 days of the change. |
| ND4 | Notice of Cessation of a Director | Filed when a director resigns, is removed, or otherwise ceases to hold office. |
| NR1 | Notice of Change of Address of Registered Office | Filed when the registered office address changes. Must be filed within 15 days. |
| NM1 / NM2 | Specification of Charge / Discharge | NM1 registers a charge over company property; NM2 records the satisfaction or release of a registered charge. The basis of the Register of Charges. |
| NSC1 | Return of Allotment of Shares | Filed when new shares are allotted. Updates the company’s share-capital record. |
For any KYB integration, the image record of Form NAR1 is the highest-leverage paid document — it gives a single-PDF snapshot of the company’s state for a given filing year, including shareholders. The image record of the most recent NAR1 plus any post-filing ND2A and NR1 filings is the standard operational baseline for a comprehensive Hong Kong counterparty profile.
The Significant Controllers Register — Hong Kong's BO regime
Hong Kong's beneficial-ownership regime is the Significant Controllers Register (SCR), introduced on 1 March 2018 under Part 12 Division 2A of the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622). The SCR is conceptually similar to the UK's PSC register or the EU's UBO register — but with one critical operational difference: the SCR is not held centrally by the CR. Each company maintains its own SCR at its registered office or at its designated representative's office (typically a Hong Kong Trust or Company Service Provider).
Who counts as a significant controller
What the public can — and can't — see
Three things are publicly available via the free Cyber Search:
- The fact that an SCR exists. Every Hong Kong company is required to maintain one.
- The designated representative appointed by the company — usually a Hong Kong-resident director, employee, or licensed TCSP.
- The registered office address where the SCR is maintained for inspection.
What's not publicly available:
- The identities of the significant controllers
- Their ID numbers and residential addresses
- The nature and extent of control they exercise
- The dates control was acquired or ceased
The SCR architecture means Hong Kong does not have a central public beneficial-ownership register. The UK's PSC register, the EU UBO register (post-Sovim restricted to legitimate interest), Singapore's RORC (restricted to law enforcement), and Taiwan's 10% Shareholder filing (restricted) all hold BO data centrally with the registrar. Hong Kong holds it at the company itself. For an external KYB team, this means the only legitimate way to inspect SCR contents is to be a specified person under Cap. 622 — primarily law enforcement, regulators, liquidators, and the AML-obligated entities with a separate inspection mechanism.
FATF's 2019 mutual evaluation flagged this as a transparency weakness, and the Hong Kong government has since strengthened SCR penalties (now up to HK$25,000 default fine plus HK$700/day continuing). But the fundamental access regime remains: SCR contents are not in the public Cyber Search.
TCSPs — the AML-obliged entity layer
Hong Kong separately licenses Trust or Company Service Providers (TCSPs) under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615). Every Hong Kong company that does not appoint a Hong Kong-resident officer to maintain its SCR must appoint a licensed TCSP as designated representative — making TCSPs the practical AML obliged-entity layer for the entire register.
Scale: 6,817 TCSP licensees were on the Hong Kong register at the end of 2024, with 798 new licences granted in 2024 alone. The Companies Registry administers the regime; the regulator’s remit covers fit-and-proper assessment of beneficial owners and ultimate controllers of TCSPs themselves, ongoing CDD obligations on their company clients, and enforcement against licensees that fail to maintain proper SCR records on behalf of their clients.
The TCSP layer matters operationally for KYB in three ways. First, the licensed TCSP often appears as the company’s registered office address — meaning the CR record shows a TCSP’s office, not the company’s actual operating premises. Second, the designated representative who maintains the SCR is typically a TCSP employee — so the gateway to any SCR inspection (where one is lawful) is the TCSP, not the company directly. Third, the fit-and-proper regime for TCSPs is itself a screening signal: a counterparty represented by a delicensed or sanctioned TCSP is a meaningful red flag.
Parallels to Singapore’s CSP Act 2024 (effective 9 June 2025) are useful, but the two regimes are structured differently. Singapore centralises nominee director appointments through registered CSPs and exposes nominee status publicly via Bizfile from 16 June 2025. Hong Kong’s TCSP regime focuses on licensing and CDD obligations, with the company’s SCR maintained at the TCSP’s office — not centrally inspectable.
The New Inspection Regime — what's now restricted
Phase 3 of the New Inspection Regime (NIR) under the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 2018 came into force on 27 December 2023, the same day the Revamped ICRIS launched. The NIR fundamentally restricted what personal information is publicly inspectable on the Companies Register. Two classes of restricted data:
Withheld Information
For company documents filed before 27 December 2023 (the "historical population"), directors and other persons named can apply to have their residential addresses and full ID numbers withheld from public inspection. The CR substitutes the correspondence address and a partial ID number (typically the first letter of HKID plus three digits, or for passports a similar redaction).
Protected Information
For company documents filed on or after 27 December 2023, directors and other persons are automatically protected — their residential addresses and full ID numbers never appear in the publicly inspectable record. The correspondence address and partial ID number are what the public sees by default. The protected fields are accessible only to specified persons.
Who counts as a "specified person" — and therefore can apply to access Withheld or Protected Information:
- The data subject themselves
- Specified public officers (law enforcement, regulators)
- The company itself, its officers, and its members
- Liquidators, provisional liquidators, trustees in bankruptcy
- Persons authorised in writing by the data subject
- Specified financial institutions and AML-obligated entities under separate access provisions
For most external KYB workflows, this means the publicly inspectable record now shows correspondence address + partial ID number — sufficient for most identity-verification tasks, but materially less than what the pre-2023 register exposed. Hong Kong's NIR is now broadly equivalent to the UK's Companies House director-address regime introduced in 2018, but stricter on the ID-number side.
Hong Kong’s FATF standing — what it means for data buyers
Hong Kong is assessed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) through the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). The 2019 Mutual Evaluation Report rated Hong Kong as largely compliant or compliant on most of the 40 FATF Recommendations, with the SCR regime cited as the principal mechanism for meeting Recommendation 24 (transparency of legal persons) and Recommendation 25 (transparency of legal arrangements).
Two FATF-driven obligations directly shape what data ends up on the public register:
- SCR maintenance. Every Hong Kong company must keep a Significant Controllers Register and identify natural persons exercising significant control. The 2018 introduction of SCR was directly motivated by FATF Recommendation 24 alignment.
- TCSP licensing under the AMLO. The Cap. 615 regime that licenses TCSPs (6,817 licensees end-2024) implements FATF Recommendation 28 on regulation and supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions.
The FATF transparency gap that distinguishes Hong Kong from peer jurisdictions is the absence of a central public BO register. The 2019 evaluation flagged the “at-source” SCR architecture — data held at company offices rather than centrally with the registrar — as a practical access constraint for non-Hong Kong authorities. Subsequent legislative tightening (higher penalties, more aggressive enforcement) has improved the regime’s effectiveness without changing the underlying access model. For Western KYB teams, this means Hong Kong’s BO data remains operationally less accessible than the UK PSC register or the (post-Sovim-restricted) EU UBO registers — even though the underlying disclosure obligations on Hong Kong companies are comparable.
Since 2020, Hong Kong has become one of the more sanctions-sensitive jurisdictions in the Asia cluster. Any KYB workflow on a Hong Kong counterparty needs to layer registry data with at least four parallel sanctions screens:
US Hong Kong-Related Sanctions (HKRS). Executive Order 13936 (“Hong Kong Normalization”) signed 14 July 2020 plus the Hong Kong Autonomy Act of 2020 (Pub. L. 116-149). OFAC has made multiple rounds of designations against Hong Kong government officials, Liaison Office officials, and PRC officials involved in Hong Kong administration — all carrying secondary sanctions risk for foreign financial institutions that knowingly transact with them.
OFAC SDN List. Hong Kong-related entries appear under the [HK-EO13936] programme tag, with the secondary sanctions risk notice pursuant to the HKAA. Designations are individual-level, not entity-level — but the 50% rule blocks any entity 50% or more owned by SDNs.
UK and EU regimes. Both maintain Hong Kong-related restrictive measures, primarily targeting officials. The UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 framework applies in parallel.
Hong Kong’s own sanctions regime. The United Nations Sanctions Ordinance (Cap. 537) gives effect to UN-mandated sanctions in Hong Kong. The CR maintains the UN Sanction Lists relevant to the AML/CFT regime on its website — a useful primary reference but materially narrower than the US OFAC programme.
The practical implication for a Hong Kong KYB workflow: registry data alone is not sufficient. A counterparty can be a fully-compliant Cap. 622 registered company with a clean CR profile and still be sanctions-exposed via its directors, owners, or PRC parent entity. Parallel screening against OFAC SDN, the HKAA Section 5(a) report, UK OFSI consolidated list, and the EU consolidated list is essential alongside the basic ICRIS lookup.
Hong Kong entity types — what each one means for KYB
The CR entity-type field is the fastest filter for understanding what compliance regime applies to a Hong Kong counterparty. Six entity types account for almost every active record.
| Type | Suffix / form | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Private Company Limited by Shares | Limited (Ltd.) | Default form. Up to 50 members. The vast majority of Hong Kong-registered companies. Most KYB workflows hit this category. |
| Public Company Limited by Shares | Limited (Ltd.) | May offer shares to the public. Subject to enhanced disclosure under Cap. 622. Listed entities also subject to HKEX rules. |
| Company Limited by Guarantee | No share capital | Used for non-profits, professional associations, schools, and clubs. Members guarantee a fixed sum on winding-up rather than holding shares. |
| Unlimited Company | Unlimited liability | Rare. Members have unlimited liability for company debts. Sometimes used for professional partnerships. |
| Registered Non-Hong Kong Company | Branch of overseas parent | Foreign-incorporated companies that have established a "place of business" in Hong Kong. Must register under Part 16 of Cap. 622. As of end-2025, 15,586 registered. |
| Re-domiciled Company | Re-domiciled to HK | New category since 23 May 2025. Non-Hong Kong corporations that have re-domiciled to Hong Kong under the new regime. 30 applications received and 6 approved by end-2025 (Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Bermuda origins). |
Cap. 622 (s. 359) allows certain Hong Kong companies to qualify for a Reporting Exemption — reduced disclosure obligations in the annual financial report and exemption from preparing certain notes. For small private companies, the entity must meet at least two of three thresholds: total annual revenue not exceeding HK$100 million, total assets not exceeding HK$100 million, and average employee count not exceeding 100. Small guarantee companies qualify when total annual revenue does not exceed HK$25 million. Small groups have parallel consolidated thresholds.
For KYB purposes, the practical signal is: financial filings for Reporting-Exempt companies will be materially less detailed than for companies above the thresholds. If you’re assessing a Hong Kong counterparty’s scale, the absence of detailed financial disclosure does not necessarily indicate a small company — it may mean the company has elected the exemption. Cross-reference the entity size against the BR Levy fee scale and HKEX listed-company status (if applicable) for a second signal.
Where Zephira sources Hong Kong data from — directly
The single most important question to ask any provider of Hong Kong company data is who is your source. Zephira goes direct: every Hong Kong record is sourced from the official authority that owns it, with the source attribution visible on every profile.
| Layer | Direct government source | Update cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Company register (CR Number, UBI, status, name, directors, secretary, registered office, share capital) | Companies Registry — Revamped ICRIS via e-Services Portal | Daily ingest with filing-level refresh |
| Charges and mortgages | Companies Registry — Register of Charges | On filing |
| Annual Returns (Form NAR1 image records) | Companies Registry — image record system | On filing |
| UBI / Business Registration validity | Inland Revenue Department | Joined on UBI key |
| Financial-services licences | SFC — Public Register of Licensed Persons | Daily refresh |
| Listed-company disclosures | HKEX — HKEXnews | Real-time on filing |
Every record on the platform carries a Data Provenance panel naming the specific government source the record was pulled from, with the timestamp of the last refresh. The panel is visible on the free profile view and in the API response (data_provenance field). SCR contents and Protected Information are not available via Zephira to non-authorised parties — those classes of data are restricted under Cap. 622 to specified persons only, and that restriction propagates through the data chain.
The CR’s own filing API — TPSI and the search-API gap
One operational reality every Hong Kong integrator hits: the Companies Registry does not publish a public search API. The CR runs the Third Party Software Interface (TPSI) — a system-to-system API for software developers and in-house IT teams — but TPSI is for filing submission, not data retrieval. Registered TPSI users can transmit duly completed and signed e-forms (incorporation, annual return, change of officer, etc.) directly from their software to the CR. Registration is free; a deposit account is required for the statutory fees on submitted documents.
Compare this to the Asia peers:
| Jurisdiction | Public search API? | Filing API? | Free basic data? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | No — web search only | TPSI (filing only) | Cyber Search free; documents paid |
| Singapore (ACRA) | Yes — EIQ, FIQ, TVQ APIs | Bizfile e-filing | Basic Bizfile free; profiles paid |
| Taiwan (MOEA) | Yes — open data API, hourly refresh | findbiz | Open data, CC-equivalent licence |
| China (SAMR) | No — web search via GSXT only | Web-based filing only | Free, with real-name auth |
The practical implication: any production-grade Hong Kong KYB integration that needs structured data has to either (a) build screen-scraping infrastructure against the e-Services Portal — legally fraught given the Portal’s terms of use and operationally fragile against UI changes, (b) order paid document downloads via the Portal’s purchase flow and parse PDFs, or (c) source the data via a commercial provider that already maintains a CR pipeline. For multi-jurisdiction workflows, option (c) typically wins on operational cost — one integration, one schema, one auth flow instead of separate pipelines for HK, SG, TW, CN, and onward.
Zephira’s REST API delivers Hong Kong CR data on the same data model as 100+ other jurisdictions, with Data Provenance attribution back to the Companies Registry, IRD, SFC, and HKEX on every field. The platform is not a substitute for TPSI — if you need to file a Form NAR1 with the CR, you still need TPSI access or the e-Services Portal directly — but for the entity-verification and ongoing-monitoring path that KYB teams actually run, a unified API removes the per-jurisdiction integration cost entirely.
Recent and upcoming legislation
Five regulatory shifts shape the Hong Kong company-data landscape from 2018 to 2026. All dates verified from CR primary sources.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I search Hong Kong companies for free?
The official free search is the Cyber Search Centre, operated by the Companies Registry via the e-Services Portal at e-services.cr.gov.hk. The free basic search returns the CR Number, UBI, English and Chinese company name, current registration status, incorporation date, company type, and name-change history. To go deeper — current directors, registered office, issued share capital, charges, Annual Return image records — you need a paid company particulars search at HK$22 per record. Zephira also provides free search at zephira.ai with three free searches per visit and no signup, returning the same CR data joined to IRD, SFC, and HKEX layers in one query. For broader entity verification across 100+ jurisdictions, see the free company verification guide.
What is ICRIS and how is it different from the old system?
ICRIS — the Integrated Companies Registry Information System — is the Hong Kong Companies Registry's electronic search and filing platform. The Revamped ICRIS launched on 27 December 2023, replacing the 18-year-old AQUA-based ICRIS. The new system consolidates all CR services into a single e-Services Portal, introduced the Unique Business Identifier (UBI), and implemented Phase 3 of the New Inspection Regime — restricting director residential addresses and full ID numbers to specified persons only. Search workflows are now account-based, with a paid e-Services account required for any document downloads beyond basic Cyber Search results.
What is the UBI?
The Unique Business Identifier is an 8-digit number that serves as the primary identifier for entities administered by the Hong Kong Companies Registrar. Implemented on 27 December 2023, the UBI is derived from the Business Registration Number issued by the Inland Revenue Department — meaning a single 8-digit key now references the same entity across both CR and IRD systems. Pre-2023 incorporation certificates still show the older 7-digit CR Number, which remains a valid search input. For any new Hong Kong KYB integration, UBI is the canonical identifier to use for forward compatibility.
Is the Significant Controllers Register publicly searchable?
No. The Significant Controllers Register has existed since 1 March 2018 under Part 12 Division 2A of Cap. 622, but its contents are not publicly accessible via the CR. Unlike the UK PSC register or the EU UBO register, the SCR is maintained at the company's own registered office (or its designated representative's office), not centrally at the CR. The public Cyber Search can confirm that an SCR exists and identify the designated representative who maintains it — but the controller identities, ID numbers, residential addresses, and the nature of significant control are accessible only to specified persons under Cap. 622, primarily law enforcement, regulators, liquidators, and AML-obligated entities operating under separate inspection provisions.
What changed with the New Inspection Regime in December 2023?
The NIR Phase 3 took effect on 27 December 2023 alongside the Revamped ICRIS. It made director residential addresses and full ID numbers Protected Information by default — for any document filed on or after that date, the public inspectable record now shows correspondence address and partial ID number only. For documents filed before that date, directors and other persons named can apply to withhold the same fields (Withheld Information). The full residential address and ID number remain accessible to specified persons — law enforcement, regulators, the data subject themselves, the company's officers, liquidators, and authorised representatives. This brings Hong Kong's director-privacy regime broadly in line with the UK Companies House regime, though stricter on the ID-number side.
How much does CR data cost?
Hong Kong CR document searches are charged per-record. Indicative pricing: basic Cyber Search Centre lookup is free; company particulars search is HK$22; individual Annual Return image record is HK$22; certified copy of Certificate of Incorporation is HK$170; certified copies of other filed documents start at HK$60. Search reports on directors or company secretaries are also paid. Compared to Singapore (S$5.50 for a full Bizfile Business Profile) and mainland China (free GSXT search), Hong Kong sits in the middle — more paywalled than the other Asia hubs but cheaper per-document than European bulk feeds.
What is the Company Re-domiciliation Regime?
The inward Company Re-domiciliation Regime took effect on 23 May 2025 under the Companies (Amendment) (No.2) Ordinance 2024. It allows non-Hong Kong corporations to re-domicile to Hong Kong while preserving their legal identity as the same body corporate — without going through judicial procedures or new incorporation. By end of 2025, the CR had received over 420 enquiries and 30 applications, with six corporations re-domiciled — from Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands, and Bermuda, including an insurance company. For KYB teams, the practical implication is a new "Re-domiciled" company classification in the CR alongside the standard local and registered non-HK categories. Cross-jurisdiction ownership trails for re-domiciled entities can be traced back to the original incorporation jurisdiction.
How current is Hong Kong CR data?
Filings appear on the CR's e-Services Portal as soon as they are processed — typically within days of filing for routine updates such as change of director (Form ND2A), change of registered office, and Annual Returns (Form NAR1). The Hong Kong system is event-driven rather than schedule-driven, which means the public record updates whenever a filing is registered, not on a fixed cadence. SCR updates (where externally visible) appear when the designated representative files an update notification. By international comparison, Hong Kong CR freshness is broadly comparable to UK Companies House and ahead of most European registries on filing-to-publication latency.
What's the difference between CR Number, UBI, and BRN?
Three numbers, two systems, one entity. The CR Number (7 digits) was the Companies Registry's identifier issued at incorporation under the pre-2023 system. The Business Registration Number (8 digits) is the Inland Revenue Department's identifier for business-registration purposes. Since 27 December 2023, the BRN has become the basis of the Unique Business Identifier (UBI) — an 8-digit number that now functions as the primary key across CR and IRD systems. All three identifiers reference the same legal entity. New filings use the UBI; older records may show only the CR Number. The e-Services Portal accepts all three as search inputs and resolves them to the same company profile.
Can I bulk-verify Hong Kong companies via API?
Yes. The Zephira REST API accepts UBI, CR Number, English/Chinese company name, or director name as primary search inputs and returns the full Hong Kong profile in JSON. Bulk delivery via S3 or SFTP is available on Business and Enterprise tiers. Resale rights are included on every paid plan from Starter ($99/month). Hong Kong records are joined to mainland China (SAMR), Singapore (ACRA), Taiwan (MOEA), and 100+ other jurisdictions on a single data model — useful for cross-Strait risk analysis, regional supply-chain verification, and global ownership-chain tracing. SCR contents and Protected Information are not exposed via the API to non-authorised parties — those classes of data are restricted by Hong Kong law to specified persons. For VAT-equivalent verification across 100+ jurisdictions, see the VAT number verification guide.
