Counterparty due diligence checklist for doing business in Indonesia

VerifyExact · 2026-11-15

Due diligence on a counterparty means collecting facts about the company before you commit, and writing down where each fact came from and when. This checklist is built for dealings with Indonesian companies. It is a working list, not a legal opinion, and every system named here can change, so check the current official portal for each one.

1. Identity: is this the company it says it is?

• Legal name, exactly as registered, including the "PT" prefix.
• Registration with the Ministry of Law through AHU: establishment deed, approval or registration number, registered address.
• Business identification number (NIB) and registered activities (KBLI codes) through the OSS system.
• Tax registration (NPWP) with matching name and address.
• Written confirmation of who the directors and commissioners are, compared with the AHU record.

Keep a copy of each record you view, with the date. A screenshot of an official page, with the date, is a reasonable minimum.

2. History: has anything changed recently?

Change is not a problem in itself, but sudden change deserves an explanation.

• Changes of directors, commissioners or shareholders over time.
• Changes of registered address, especially several in a short period.
• Changes of company name.
• The establishment date, compared with how long the company says it has been trading.

Ask the company to explain any change you cannot connect to a normal business reason, and note the answer.

3. Legal standing: any court or insolvency records?

• Court cases. Indonesian courts publish case information through the court case tracking system SIPP (Sistem Informasi Penelusuran Perkara) for each court, and judgments are published in the Supreme Court's directory of decisions. Search the company name and, where you can, its former names. Name searches can return other companies with similar names, so confirm a match with other details before you record it. A case existing is a fact. Do not read more into it than the record says.
• Bankruptcy and PKPU. Bankruptcy (kepailitan) and suspension of debt payment obligations (PKPU, Penundaan Kewajiban Pembayaran Utang) are handled only by the commercial courts (Pengadilan Niaga) at the district courts of Central Jakarta, Surabaya, Semarang, Medan and Makassar. Search the commercial court listings for the company name.
• Regulatory notices. Where the company's sector is regulated, check the relevant regulator's public notices and licence lists.

4. Procurement lists

If the company sells to government bodies, check the national blacklist (Daftar Hitam Nasional) published by LKPP on INAPROC. State-owned enterprises run their own procurement and vendor sanction lists, so ask the enterprise or check its e-procurement portal. Also note whether the company appears in tender announcements and awards, which can show activity. Check the current official portal for how to search.

5. Operations: does the business exist in the real world?

• Does the registered address exist, and does anything there match the business? A video call from the premises or a visit can help for larger deals.
• Can you find the company's own website and domain, and does its contact information match the registration documents?
• Can you reach it by a phone number you found independently, not one printed on the document you are checking?
• For goods: ask for independent evidence of capacity such as certificates, product registrations or references you can contact yourself.

6. Payment signals

• The bank account must be in the exact legal name of the company. A personal account or a different company is a question to resolve before paying.
• Ask for trade references and call them yourself.
• Compare the payment terms you are offered with the terms you can protect. For a new relationship, advance payment, a letter of credit, a bank guarantee or collateral protect you more than open credit. Open credit is a bet on the other side.
• Start small and increase exposure as the relationship proves itself.

7. Scale the checks to the deal

• Small, one-off: identity checks (AHU, NIB, NPWP) and a bank account name match.
• Medium, repeat: add history, court and PKPU searches, and references.
• Large or long-term: add procurement lists, a site visit or video call, and involve your own legal and financial advisers.

For larger transactions, your own legal and financial advisers should review the findings and the contract. VerifyExact provides information, not legal or financial advice.

8. Write it down

Keep one file per counterparty: what you checked, the source, the date, and what you found. Record "not found" as "not found on this date", and never as "clear". Too few records means you have limited data, not a clean result. Repeat the checks when the relationship changes, when a large order arrives, or at least once a year.

VerifyExact provides information, not legal or financial advice. For larger transactions, involve your own legal and financial advisers.