The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises takes regular action to improve the quality of the data of the registered entities (here further entities) and establishment units.
This page lists the most important actions carried out in the past years as well as
- the results of its quantitative survey (in French) (PDF, 3.63 MB) conducted among its users and initiators / data managers in November 2020;
- the report of the bilateral discussions (held in 2022) with key users (PDF, 990.33 KB);
- the list of priority quality needs (PDF, 536.64 KB) based on survey results and bilateral discussions.
Closure of the liquidation (legal situation 014) (ongoing)
For Belgian entities, legal situation 014 (closure of the liquidation) must always be preceded by one of the following legal situations: 010 (dissolution), 012 (early dissolution) or 013 (legal dissolution). For many entities, only legal situation 014 had been entered.
What did we do?
For 18,200 entities, we looked for the publication of judgments 010 (dissolution), 012 (early dissolution) or 013 (legal dissolution) in the annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette and we added the corresponding codes in the CBE.
The CBE applications were also adapted so that a legal situation 014 can no longer be entered for an entity whose legal situation does not correspond to the legal situation 010, 012 or 013.
Incomplete addresses of foreign entities (ongoing)
In the CBE, the addresses of foreign entities are sometimes incomplete (missing postcode, street name, etc).
What did we do?
For the foreign entities established in Luxembourg, we looked for the correct address in the Trade and Company Register of Luxembourg. As a result, 385 addresses were completed.
For the foreign entities established in France, we looked for the correct address in Infogreffe, the French Trade and Company Register. As a result, 2,404 addresses were completed.
The data of foreign entities established in the Netherlands are being corrected.
Correct street code for "Coupure" in Ghent (October 2021)
Some entities and business units had an address with the street code "K001 - Coupure Droite" or "K002 - Coupure Gauche" in 9000 Ghent. However, these are not official street names. As a result, the street code of these addresses has been changed to "2164 - Coupure” in Ghent.
What did we do?
456 street codes were modified with the correct street code.
Natural person entity registered as a function (discontinued) rather than as a natural person (June 2021)
Until the end of 2018, it was possible to create functions performed by natural person entities instead of registering the founder of the entity as a natural person.
What did we do?
4,930 functions performed by a natural person entity (under the company number) were corrected to functions performed by the founder of the natural person entity (under the national register number).
Required capital not filled in for some legal forms (March 2021)
No capital was entered in the CBE, although some legal forms must by law mention it.
What did we do?
We looked for the most recent capital in the publications in the annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette and entered it in the CBE. As a result, the capital of 1,207 entities was added.
Correction of the fields house number and/or letterbox number (February 2021)
The fields “house number” and “letterbox number” sometimes mention other information than the house and the letterbox number (e.g. block, floor, quay,…).
What did we do?
The fields “house number and/or letterbox number” of 5,021 addresses were corrected. Most of the data that were removed, could be registered in the field “additional address”.
Registration of the legal person for the function "permanent representative" or "legal person representative" (continuous)
When a legal person holds the mandate of a member of an administrative body (e.g. board member) or a day-to-day manager, a natural person can be appointed as a permanent representative/ legal person representative in charge of this mandate on behalf of the legal person.
Sometimes, the natural person who has the function of "permanent representative" or "legal person representative" is registered, without mention of the legal entity being represented.
What did we do?
The legal person represented by a natural person was added for 17,312 functions "permanent representative" or "legal person representative".
Cancellation of scholarship foundations (January 2021)
Scholarship foundations have been registered in the CBE although they may not.
What did we do?
184 scholarship foundations have been cancelled.
Conversion of capital from XEU to euro (December 2020)
The capital of some entities is still expressed in XEU.
What did we do?
After a check of the publications in the annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette, the capital of 5,009 entities has been converted into euros.
Addresses without “street” code (December 2020)
Some addresses of entities and establishment units were registered without “street” code.
What did we do?
The “street” code has been added to 4.631 addresses that were missing it.
Cancellation of activities at entity level (October 2020)
Activities (activity group 003 ) may normally only occur at establishment unit level. However, when loading the non-trading companies (in 2009), activities were registered at entity level when the establishment unit was not yet registered.
What did we do?
For those entities for which an establishment unit has been registered in the meantime, we cancelled the activity(ies) at entity level. 39,734 activities were cancelled for 20,495 entities.
Registration of the function of 'permanent representative' (continuous)
Where a legal entity is appointed director, manager, member of the supervisory board, ... it must always appoint a permanent representative to carry out this mandate in its name and on its behalf.
Two separate functions must therefore be registered in the CBE:
- the function of director, executive director, manager, ... exercised by the legal person (e.g. entity X is a director);
- the function of permanent representative.
However, this situation was not always properly reflected in the CBE.
What did we do?
For 5,892 entities, the legal entity appointed as director, manager ... as well as the person appointed as permanent representative of this legal entity have been registered.
Contact details included in the field 'additional address details' (March 2020)
Before release 33.2, 2 contact details of the same type (e.g. 2 phone numbers) could not be registered in the CBE. Therefore, those data were sometimes added in the field 'additional address details' of the address.
What did we do?
We removed 1,922 contact details from the 'additional address details' field and registered them as contact details.
Converting capital from BEF to euro (December 2019)
For approximately 60,000 entities in the CBE the capital is still expressed in BEF.
What did we do?
For 56,000 entities, it was checked in the appendix to the Belgian Official Gazette whether there was a publication in which the capital was converted into euros.
For 15,410 entities, a publication was found and the capital could be converted from BEF to euro.
Functions 'associate or member' (October 2019)
The function 'associate or member' was registered with entities with a legal form for which this is not a legal function.
What did we do?
13,156 wrongly entered functions 'associate or member' were cancelled or corrected with the correct function code.
Functions 'legal representative' (September 2019)
The function 'legal representative' can only be registered with entities natural person and with foreign entities with a branch in Belgium. However, In CBE this was not always the case.
What did we do?
1,099 wrongly entered functions 'legal representative' were cancelled or corrected.
Registered office without street code (March 2019)
Some addresses of the registered office of entities were registered without a street code.
What did we do?
For 1,333 addresses without a street code the correct street code was entered.
Conversion of the capital from BEF into euro (in progress)
The capital of some 60,000 entities in the CBE was still mentioned in BEF.
What did we do?
For 56,000 entities, we checked in the Belgian Official Gazette whether there was a publication stating that the share capital had been converted into euro.
A publication has been found for 14,500 entities. As a result, their share capital could be converted from BEF into euro.
Address change for Brussels National Airport (November 2018)
The address of Zaventem airport did not correspond to the official name.
What did we do?
We changed the address of Zaventem airport to “Brussels National Airport” for the 463 entities identified.
Correction of the contact data (November 2018)
A second set of contact data of the same type has been entered in another data field (phone, fax, e-mail, etc), because it was impossible to encode two data of the same type.
What did we do?
Since 1 November 2018, several contact data of the same type may be registered within the CBE. 3,535 data entered in a wrong field were corrected or cancelled if the data was no longer valid.
Branch of foreign entities with legal form code 230 “Foreign entity with real property in Belgium (with legal personality)” (October 2018)
A branch was sometimes erroneously added for certain foreign entities with legal form code 230.
What did we do?
For 3,704 foreign entities with the legal form code 230 and a branch in Belgium, we checked in the Belgian Official Gazette whether a publication stated that a branch had been created. In the absence of such publication, the branch was cancelled.
Phone numbers removed from the field “Other contact details” (October 2018)
The “other contact details” sometimes included a phone number.
What did we do?
1,867 phone numbers were removed from the “other contact details” and registered as a phone number in the general contact details.
Adaptation of “street” codes (August 2018)
Some addresses were encoded without a “street” code.
What did we do?
The 241 addresses without a “street” code were correctly encoded.
Functions Commissioner and Permanent representative of the Commissioner (July 2018)
The functions codes Commissioner and Permanent representative of the commissioner were stopped on 31.03.2004
What did we do?
176 functions of Commissioner and Permanent representative of the commissioner were cancelled if the start date of the function was posterior to 31.03.2004.
Postal code encoded as letterbox number (March 2018)
The postal code has sometimes been encoded as the letterbox number.
What did we do?
For 459 addresses, the postal code has been removed from the letterbox number.
Missing “street” code (March 2018)
For a certain number of Belgian addresses, the name of the street did not include a “street” code.
What did we do?
The “street” code was added to 151 addresses.
General Assembly month (continuous)
The general assembly month is sometimes erroneously or not registered in the ECB. This error occurs either during the registration of the entity or during a subsequent statutory change.
What did we do?
The general assembly month has been added or corrected for 23,287 companies.
Places of worship (March 2018)
The denomination of the places of worship must follow a certain structure.
What did we do?
We have changed the name of 5,296 places of worship so that it complies with the imposed structure.
Erroneous functions within companies or associations without legal personality (February 2018)
For certain entities whose legal form is “company or association without legal personality”, the founder was registered thanks to his identification via his enterprise number instead of his national register number.
What did we do?
7,390 functions “founder of an entity without legal personality” have been corrected.
Fictitious start date of a registered entity “natural person” (November 2017)
During the initial loading of the ECB, some registered entities “natural person” were registered with a fictitious start date (01.01.1800).
What did we do?
We have corrected the start date of 13,544 registered entities ‘natural person’ by replacing it with the start date of their commercial characteristic.
Regularization of fictitious national registry numbers (October 2017)
During the initial loading of the ECB, registered entities “natural person” with an unknown national registry number were registered with a fictitious national registry number starting with 9999.
What did we do?
The fictitious national registry number has been replaced by the correct national registry number for 825 entities.
Invalid start date for certain registered entities “legal person” (May 2017)
Registered entities “legal person” were created with an incorrect start date.
What did we do?
We have changed the start date of 1,185 entities.
Special characters in the denomination (February 2017)
Many entities use special characters in their denominations.
What did we do?
We have removed the special characters in the denominations of 1,028 entities.
Missing managing director functions at registered entities with the legal form “bvba” (private company with limited liability) or cooperative partnership (action not yet finalised)
In 2003 thousands of private limited liability companies and cooperative partnerships were recorded in the CBE without naming a managing director.
What did we do?
At least one function was registered in the data of 38,714 private limited liability companies and cooperative partnerships.
Function codes not matching the legal form (continuous)
Depending on the legal form a few specific function codes may be registered for an entity.
Summary of the function codes per legal form (PDF, 329.56 Kb)
In many cases the function code and legal form did not match.
What did we do?
The function codes have been corrected or cancelled for 55,314 functions.
Postcodes with multiple NIS codes (alphanumeric code for regional areas) (February 2017)
When an address is coded in the CBE, the system checks whether the postcode is linked to the municipal code. 24 postcodes in the CBE link to multiple NIS municipal codes. Each of these postcodes serves one single “principal municipality” as well as a few houses in a “secondary municipality”. The extent to which a postcode serves the secondary municipality is very limited. Nevertheless, the postcode–secondary municipality combination occurs 2,704 times in the CBE.
What did we do?
174 addresses of registered offices were corrected. The other addresses (of business units) were modified automatically.
Registered entities/establishment units with a start date in the future (January 2017)
For 27 entities/establishment units the start date lay in the future.
What did we do?
The 27 start dates were corrected.
Conversion of activities 2003 (December 2016)
A few activities had not been converted to the NACEBEL version 2008 and still had a NACEBEL 2003 code.
What did we do?
2,374 activities with a NACEBEL 2003 code were converted to a NACEBEL 2008 code.
Active curator’s function without the matching legal situation (October 2016)
A few entities reported an active curator’s function even though insolvency proceedings had not been initiated.
What did we do?
After checking the Belgian Official Journal, the legal situation of 95 entities was modified or the curator’s function cancelled.
Duplicate mention of the same legal form (October 2016)
For a few entities the same legal form was recorded twice in succession.
What did we do?
For 117 entities one of both legal forms was deleted.
Problems with functions caused by failure to replace cancelled natural persons (July 2016)
If in the BIS register a natural person’s number is replaced by another number, that number is replaced for all the functions performed by that person at an entity registered in the CBE. Although this is an automated process, manual intervention may be required in certain cases.
What did we do?
For 272 functions the correct number was recorded in the CBE.
Legal situation 091: suspension – judicial reorganisation (May 2016)
For some entities the legal situation “suspension – judicial reorganisation” exceeded a duration of one year.
What did we do?
For 176 entities the legal situation record was changed to “normal situation”, “insolvency proceedings initiated” or “dissolved”.
Active functions / business skills that may not occur for discontinued registered entities (May 2016)
For a few discontinued entities the records still contained active functions or business skills.
What did we do?
For 113 entities the function or business skill was discontinued or cancelled.
Public services (April 2016)
A few public services that no longer exist were still active in the CBE.
What did we do?
176 public services were discontinued or closed.
Discontinuation of foreign entities with legal situation “discontinuation of activities in Belgium” (March 2016)
Several foreign entities whose legal situation read “discontinuation of activities in Belgium” had an AC (Active) status in the CBE.
What did we do?
For 7,247 entities the status was changed to ST (discontinued) with the start date of the “discontinuation of activities in Belgium” featuring as the date of discontinuation.
Active EDRL or RSZPPO/ONSSAPL activities without matching active characteristic (February 2016)
A few entities showed activities under the EDRL or RSZPPO/ONSSAPL despite discontinuation of that characteristic.
What did we do?
111 activities under EDRL or RSZPPO/ONSSAPL were discontinued.
Contents of the field “additional address” (January 2016)
In some cases, the field “additional address” contained other information than an address.
What did we do?
The field was corrected for 322 entities.
