Insolvency check: how to search the Dutch insolvency register

The Central Insolvency Register (Centraal Insolventieregister, CIR) collects the insolvency records of all Dutch district courts in one place. It shows whether a person or company in the Netherlands has been declared bankrupt, has been granted a suspension of payments, or is in statutory debt rescheduling (WSNP). It covers three procedures:

• Bankruptcy (faillissement): individuals and companies.
• Suspension of payments (surseance van betaling): companies and self-employed people.
• Statutory debt rescheduling (WSNP, Wet schuldsanering natuurlijke personen): individuals only.

For each record, you see the name, date of birth (for individuals), address, the insolvency number, every court publication, and the appointed trustee or administrator.

What the register does not show

• Insolvencies published before 1 January 2005.
• Insolvencies that ended more than six months ago. After that, the record disappears from the public register.
• Informal debt arrangements with creditors (amicable debt settlement) or debt counselling by a municipality.
• Guardianship (curatele) and administration (bewind). These are in a separate register; see the FAQs below.

Viewing the register is free. A certified extract is available for a fee from the district court that handles the insolvency. Source: Rechtspraak, explanation of the CIR.

You can check the register in about two minutes. The site is in Dutch, so we give the Dutch labels in brackets.

1. Open the register. Go to insolventies.rechtspraak.nl, or on rechtspraak.nl choose Registers, then Central Insolvency Register (Centraal Insolventieregister).
2. Choose who you are looking for. Pick a person (natuurlijk persoon) or a company or trade name (rechtspersoon/handelsnaam).
3. Fill in a valid combination. Privacy rules mean you cannot search for a name alone. For a person, use one of these:
   1. surname and date of birth;
   2. surname, postcode and house number;
   3. date of birth, postcode and house number.
4. Check the result. The results tab (resultaat) shows the latest publication per case. Click it to open the detail tab (detail) with the full history, the trustee and the supervising judge. The date at the top right shows how up to date the register is.

Note: put prefixes such as "van de" in the prefix field (voorvoegsel), written in full. For a company, search by name, Chamber of Commerce (KVK) number, or postcode and house number.

For most jobs, a candidate's financial past is none of the employer's business. For roles where someone controls money, it can be. An insolvency check helps you spot a risk that a CV or job interview won't show.

Roles where an insolvency check is common:

• Finance staff with payment authority, such as controllers, accountants and treasury staff.
• Board members, directors and managers who sign contracts or approve budgets.
• Employees at banks, insurers, pension funds and payment companies. In the financial sector, regulators such as DNB and the AFM also look at financial history when they screen policymakers. See our page on screening in financial services.
• Roles with access to client funds, cash or valuable stock.

Insolvency is not a reason to reject someone by itself. A statutory debt rescheduling usually ends with a clean slate, and many people rebuild their finances after bankruptcy. What matters is whether the finding is relevant to the role, and the conversation you have with the candidate about it.

Under the GDPR, you may only screen what is necessary for the job. Decide per role whether an insolvency check is proportionate, tell the candidate in advance, and record why you need it. Pescheck helps you set this up per position. For the full picture, read our guide to pre-employment screening.