Corporate Due Diligence & Background Checks
A due diligence or company background check shows you who you are dealing with before you sign. We search official Singapore records and proprietary compliance databases on a company or a person, and deliver the findings in a written report: ownership and officers, court, winding up and bankruptcy records, and sanctions, politically exposed person (PEP) and adverse news screening.
Taking a partner or client at face value is a financial risk. Whether you are entering a merger, appointing a director, or onboarding a new supplier, you need verified data to make informed decisions.
What Our Checks Cover
For a company, our screening process includes:
Corporate Profile Verification
Verifying shareholders, directors, and capital structure via official ACRA records. We add the status, filing record, charges, auditor, former names and financial statements, where available from the records searched.
Beneficial Ownership
Where a shareholder is itself a company, here or overseas, we look it up in turn to show who sits behind it.
Litigation Search
Checking Singapore Supreme Court and State Courts records for pending lawsuits or past judgments. Results are case traces; case files are added when your scope includes them.
Insolvency & Bankruptcy
Verifying if the individual or entity is bankrupt or undergoing winding-up proceedings.
Global Sanctions (AML/CFT)
Screening against global watchlists (e.g., UN, OFAC) for money laundering or terrorism financing risks. PEP screening runs alongside it.
Financial Crime and Adverse News
Screening the company and its officers for financial crime, fraud and regulatory breaches, and searches of published court judgments and news in English and Chinese.
Overseas companies: we work from the corporate registry and public records available in the company’s home country, plus the same international screening, which covers more than 240 countries and territories.
Checks on Individuals
From the name and identification details you provide, we check:
Director Interests
Identifying potential conflicts of interest by mapping out other directorships held by the individual. We list current and past directorships and shareholdings, including companies since struck off.
Litigation and Bankruptcy
Court searches in the person’s name, as an individual and through their businesses, and a bankruptcy search.
Director Disqualification
Whether the person is disqualified from acting as a director, for example for having been a director of 3 or more companies struck off by the Registrar within 5 years.
Sanctions, PEP and Adverse News
Screening for sanctions, politically exposed person (PEP) status including relatives and close associates, financial crime, fraud and adverse news.
KYC and AML Screening for Your Customers and Partners
Excellence Singapore provides deep-dive due diligence and “Know Your Customer” (KYC) reports. If you screen the customers, suppliers or partners you take on, we run the screening for you:
- Know your business (KYB): registration, status, officers and shareholders, with any corporate shareholder traced in turn.
- Know your customer (KYC): identity matched to the details you provide, with directorships and shareholdings.
- Sanctions: United Nations sanctions lists, OFAC and equivalent international designations.
- PEP and adverse news: politically exposed persons, including relatives and close associates, plus financial crime and fraud records.
Each written result records what was searched, when, and how every possible match was resolved. Your risk assessment and the decision to take the customer on stay with you.
What Your Report Contains
Every check ends in a written report, marked private and confidential, with a section for each area searched.
Findings at a Glance
Each section listed with its status, noted or nil return, and a one-line finding.
Executive Summary
The overall position and the numbered matters for your attention, before the detail.
Analyst Commentary
How the subject was identified and how each name match was resolved, so you are not handed a list of namesakes.
Scope and Limitations
The agreed scope, the searches made and their date, and what was not searched, stated plainly.
How Our Checks Go Beyond Public Records
Where Singapore’s public records stop, our checks carry on:
Owners
We trace a company’s ownership through its shareholders, here and overseas. ACRA’s register of beneficial owners (registrable controllers) is closed to the public.
Lawsuits
We search Supreme Court and State Courts records and published judgments for civil and criminal cases involving the company or person.
Insolvency
We check whether a person has a bankruptcy record and whether a company has been wound up or faces a winding up application.
Criminal records
We screen for financial crime, fraud and related crime, and search published court judgments. A Police Certificate of Clearance is issued to the person, for overseas use only.
Sanctions
We screen the company and the people in scope against the UN lists, OFAC and equivalent designations. UN sanctions bind businesses and individuals in Singapore.
When Should You Conduct Due Diligence?
Strategic Partnerships & Investments
- Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A): Before buying a company, uncover registered charges, lawsuits, or “bad actors” among the target’s executives.
- Investments & IPOs: Validate claims made by startups or companies seeking funding before committing large capital. Founders can prepare with our startup due diligence checklist.
Operational & Supply Chain
- Vendor Vetting: A key supplier’s failure can cripple your business. We check that your vendors are legitimate and search them for lawsuits, insolvency and sanctions.
- International Operations: Assess the legitimacy of overseas contacts to avoid falling for scams or sanctioned entities.
Client & Credit Risk
- New Clients (KYC): Verify the identity and background of new clients to prevent onboarding fraudsters.
- Trade Credit: Before extending credit to a new customer, check its court, insolvency and charges record.
Board & Compliance
- Conflict of Interest: Ensure key employees or directors do not have undisclosed interests in competing firms.
- Director Appointments: Check a proposed director’s other directorships, court record and bankruptcy status before they join your board.
How It Works
- Scope and quotationTell us who needs checking and why; we agree the scope and quote it in writing.
- Your identifiersYou give us the company’s registration number, or the person’s name and identification details.
- Searches and screeningWe run the agreed searches and screening, and an analyst reviews every possible match.
- Report and walk-throughYou receive the written report and a walk-through of the findings.
Why Use Us for Due Diligence
- Accountants who read company records daily: we file with ACRA and prepare accounts, so filings, charges and officer changes are read in context.
- English and Chinese sources: our own research covers court judgments, regulatory material and news in both languages.
- Personal data handled with care: the details you give us are used only for the agreed check, and every report is private and confidential.
Excellence Singapore is a registered corporate service provider that has supported more than 4,000 businesses since 2013.
Ask for a Due Diligence Quote
Tell us who you need checked and why. Contact us for a confidential background screening quote. The scope and timing are agreed in a written quotation before work starts.
Due Diligence and Background Check FAQs
A company check covers the company and the people behind it. We verify its officers, shareholders and share capital from official ACRA records, trace corporate shareholders, search Supreme Court and State Courts records for lawsuits and winding up, check insolvency records, and screen the company and its officers for sanctions, politically exposed persons, financial crime and adverse news. You receive the findings in a written report.
Yes. From the name and identification details you provide, we list the person's current and past directorships and shareholdings, check for conflicts of interest, search court and bankruptcy records, check whether they are disqualified from acting as a director, and screen them for sanctions, politically exposed person status, financial crime and adverse news. The findings come in a written report with analyst commentary.
Run it before you commit money or reputation: before onboarding a key supplier, signing a joint venture or distribution deal, extending credit to a new customer, buying a company or franchise, or appointing a director. A check brings out lawsuits, insolvency or sanctions issues while you can still walk away, and gives you a written record of who you dealt with and why you went ahead.
Not directly. Companies that keep a register of registrable controllers must also file it with ACRA's central register of controllers, but ACRA states that members of the public cannot view or buy that information. A due diligence check therefore traces ownership through the shareholders shown in ACRA's records, looks up any corporate shareholder in turn, in Singapore or overseas, and notes where the records searched could not confirm ownership.
We screen the person against financial crime, fraud and related crime records in proprietary compliance databases, and search published court judgments and news reports, so the report flags anything that needs a closer look before you proceed. A Singapore Certificate of Clearance, which certifies that a person has no criminal record in Singapore, is issued by the Singapore Police Force to the person, for overseas use only.
Yes. For businesses that screen their customers, suppliers or partners, we check each business and the people behind it: registration and status, officers and shareholders, United Nations, OFAC and other sanctions lists, politically exposed persons with their relatives and close associates, financial crime and adverse news. Each result records what was searched, when, and how every possible match was resolved, so you have a written record for your file.
Yes. For a company outside Singapore, we work from the corporate registry and public records available in its home country, search for court and insolvency matters where those records are published, and run the same international screening, which covers more than 240 countries and territories. What each country publishes differs, so the quotation states what will be searched and the report states what was found.
A nil return means the searches listed for that section found no record matching the subject. The report shows a status for every section, noted or nil return, and its scope section lists what was searched, on which date and against which identifiers. The absence of a finding is not proof of absence of a matter, so the report also states the limits of the records searched.
We agree the scope first: which company or person, which searches and screening, and any extras such as case files or overseas records. The scope, fee and timing are then set out in a written quotation before any work starts, because a single Singapore company with two directors needs less work than a group with overseas shareholders.
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