Official company records for Colombia, on demand

Colombian companies are recorded in the registro mercantil, which the Código de Comercio declares public: anyone may examine its books and archives and obtain copies of its entries. The register is kept by the cámaras de comercio (chambers of commerce), with the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio determining how inscriptions are made. It holds the matrícula of merchants and commercial establishments and the inscription of the acts, books and documents for which the law requires that formality.

Since Decreto Ley 019 de 2012, the registro mercantil operates inside the Registro Único Empresarial y Social (RUES), which integrated the mercantile register with the register of state contractors (proponentes) and registers of non-profit entities, tourism providers and other categories. The RUES is administered by the chambers of commerce, and through its portal anyone can access basic information from the business registers free of charge and purchase certificates of matrícula mercantil and legal representation.

Beneficial ownership sits outside the chambers' public record. Legal persons and structures without legal personality supply the identification of their beneficial owners, from 5% of capital, voting rights or economic benefit, or control by any other means, to the Registro Único de Beneficiarios Finales (RUB) on the platform of the tax authority (DIAN), whose materials describe a supply obligation rather than public consultation. The Company Records report resolves beneficial ownership by following registered shareholders up the ownership chain from official filings. The Company Records report for Colombia includes the registry extract sourced from the official register.