The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (Kruispuntbank voor Ondernemingen/Banque-Carrefour des Enterprises) came into being on 1 July 2003.

The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) is a new register for all enterprises (legal entities, associations and natural persons). The purpose of the CBE is to register and manage all basic information pertaining to enterprises and to simplify the burdensome administrative formalities that must be complied with in order to establish and manage a business in Belgium.

The CBE was created by the Act of 16 January 2003 (published in the Belgian State Gazette on 5 February 2003). Thirty-eight (38) royal decrees were needed to transpose it into Belgian law. Since the ambitious goal of the Belgian government was to have the CBE operational by 1 July 2003, more than ten (10) royal decrees to this effect were published in the Belgian State Gazette on 27 and 30 June 2003. In addition, several ministerial decrees were also published in the Belgian State Gazette on 27 June 2003 to enable the so-called Authorised Enterprise Offices (Erkende Ondernemingsloketten/Guichets d'Entreprises agréés). Obviously, it will be several weeks before the relevant ministries and the Authorised Enterprise Offices are able to provide legal practitioners and corporate management with useful guidelines on how to apply these new provisions.

As from 1 July 2003, new forms for the publication of company decisions in the annexes to the Belgian State Gazette and for registration with the CBE must be used (the former Forms IV and V and the commercial registers have been abolished). These new forms can be downloaded, in either French or Dutch from the website of the Belgian Ministry of Justice: www.moniteur.be.

Every company will receive an enterprise number, which will be its unique identification number with the Belgian authorities (VAT, CBE, social security, etc.) and the courts. New companies will receive an enterprise number upon registration with the CBE. For existing companies, the enterprise number is 0 followed by the VAT number. The number must be used on all company documents, including invoices and judicial documents.

Source: NautaDutilh