Guernsey Registry — Operated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) under the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008. The Registry Portal at portal.guernseyregistry.com provides a public API covering companies (Non-Cellular, Protected Cell, Incorporated Cell), Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Partnerships, and Foundations. This is the sole source for all structured entity data: company name, legal form, status, incorporation date, registered address, economic activity, directors, and other officials.
Guernsey Registry — Charities and Non-Profit Organisations are registered through the same Registry Portal under the Charities and Non Profit Organisations (Registration) (Guernsey) Law, 2008. The API exposes the same endpoints for these entity types, including officer data (Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary) and available documents.
All Guernsey Registry data is publicly available without authentication. The API has a rate limit of 60 requests per minute.
How does the data flow work?
For each company profile request, the system aggregates data from five Guernsey Registry API endpoints in parallel:
Public Search — Basic company data (name, status, entity type, registration number)
Entity Details — Registered address, registration date, contact info
Extended Details — Economic activity code and classification
Events — Filing history (used to extract incorporation date)
Name History — Previous/former names
For key persons, a sixth endpoint is called:
Relationships — Directors, Resident Agents, General Partners, Councillors, etc.
Address parsing uses Nominatim for standardization. Status, legal form, and activity codes are enriched using AI.
Guernsey entities are identified using a registration number prefixed by the entity type:
Prefix
Entity Type
Format
Example
Notes
CMP
Company (Non-Cellular, PCC, ICC)
CMP + digits
CMP10001
Most common entity type
FND
Foundation
FND + digits
FND167
Guernsey Foundations Law, 2012
LLP
Limited Liability Partnership
LLP + digits
LLP149
Guernsey LLP Law, 2013
LP
Limited Partnership
LP + digits
LP2075
Includes variants with/without legal personality
CH
Charity
CH + digits
CH12
International and domestic charities
NP
Non-Profit Organisation
NP + digits
NP2
Domestic NPOs
Always use the full prefixed registration number. The numeric part alone (e.g., 10001 instead of CMP10001) will not match correctly. The prefix is part of the official identifier.
Search uses live Registry API lookups. Both name and identifier searches query the Guernsey Registry’s public-search endpoint in real time. Name searches accept free text with a minimum of 2 characters and a maximum of 100 characters.
Use registration number searches for exact matching and best performance. Name searches may return multiple results across different entity types (companies, charities, NPOs, foundations, partnerships).
Registration numbers always include a prefix (CMP, FND, LLP, LP, CH, NP). Using just the numeric part will fail.
No shareholders or UBO data
Shareholder and Ultimate Beneficial Owner data is private in Guernsey and is not available through the public register.
Corporate directors are common
Many Guernsey companies use corporate directors (trust companies acting as directors). The system uses name pattern heuristics (suffixes like “Limited”, “Ltd”, “LLP”) to distinguish corporate from individual directors.
Compound surname handling
Guernsey has significant French/Norman influence, so compound surnames (Le Gallez, De Carteret, Du Feu) are common and parsed with special prefix detection for Le, De, Du, Van, etc.
Resident Agent on all entity types
Almost all Guernsey entities have a Resident Agent (typically a licensed trust company), mapped as an Other Key Person.
GFSC activity codes are non-standard
Guernsey uses its own dotted-numeric classification (e.g., 10.5.7), not SIC or NACE. NACE and ISIC are always AI-inferred from the description text.
”NA” activity means no classification
Some entities have NA as their economic activity, meaning no specific activity has been assigned. No activity codes are returned for these entities.
Charity/NPO statements are free
Trade Register Extracts for charities (CH) and non-profits (NP) are free, while commercial entity types (CMP, LP, LLP, FND) cost approximately GBP 15.
Uncertain relationship types need AI
The “Other Managing Official” role (type ID 123) is ambiguous and requires AI analysis to classify as legal representative or other key person. For charities/NPOs, these are typically trustees with collective signing authority.
~20 distinct entity statuses
Guernsey has numerous status values including multiple dissolved variants (voluntary liquidation, registrar strike off, compulsory liquidation, voluntary strike off, wound up, etc.). All are AI-enriched to standardized statuses.
Dissolved companies lack officials
Dissolved companies often return empty arrays for the relationships/officials endpoint.
Automated document purchase
Paid documents require an automated purchase flow (login, MFA, cart, checkout, 3DS verification) before download. This adds significant latency (up to 20 minutes).
Rate limit: 60 requests/minute
The Guernsey Registry API enforces a rate limit of 60 requests per minute (X-Rate-Limit-Limit: 1m).
No financial statements
Guernsey companies do not file financial statements publicly. “Annual Validation” and “Annual Return” documents are compliance filings, not financial statements.
Company status is extracted from the Guernsey Registry’s entityStatusDesc field. The active flag is determined deterministically from a known list of active statuses. The standardized status (statusDetails) is AI-enriched.
Guernsey uses entity type IDs from the Registry API. The local legal form name is preserved from the Registry, and ISO 20275 (ELF) codes are AI-enriched when not deterministically mapped.
ISO 20275 codes are AI-enriched for most Guernsey legal forms because the Guernsey-specific entity types (Protected Cell Company, Incorporated Cell Company, etc.) do not have standard ELF codes. The local legal form name from the Registry is always preserved verbatim.
Legal representatives are extracted from the Guernsey Registry’s relationships endpoint. Classification is deterministic for known relationship types (no AI needed). Both individuals and corporate entities can hold legal representative roles.
Local Role Name
English Translation
Standardized
Entity Types
Notes
Director
Director
Director
Companies, Charities
Can be individual or corporate (mixed)
General Partner
General Partner
General Partner
Limited Partnerships
Can be individual or corporate (mixed)
Chairperson
Chairperson
Chairman
NPOs, Charities
Always individual
Councillor
Councillor
Director
Foundations
Can be individual or corporate; equivalent to director
Typically a licensed trust/fiduciary company; can be individual or corporate
Secretary
Secretary
Secretary
Companies
Always individual
Treasurer
Treasurer
Other
NPOs, Charities
Always individual
Uncertain Roles (AI-parsed): The “Other Managing Official” role (relationship type ID 123, always individual) is ambiguous. For charities/NPOs, these are typically trustees with collective signing authority and are classified as Legal Representatives by AI. For companies, they are usually classified as Other Key Persons unless they have explicit signing authority.
No shareholder data available. Shareholder and ownership information is private in Guernsey and is not disclosed through the public Registry. Neither ownership percentages nor beneficial ownership data is available.
Guernsey uses its own GFSC economic activity classification with dotted numeric codes (e.g., 10.5.7, 02.9.1). These codes do not directly map to European or international standards. NACE and ISIC codes are always AI-inferred from the activity description text.
Some entities have NA as their economic activity classification, indicating no specific activity has been assigned. In these cases, no activity codes are returned. Both NACE and ISIC codes are always AI-inferred for Guernsey entities — check the isAIInferred flag.
GGY_TRADE_REGISTER_EXTRACT — Paid Statement of Register for commercial entities (CMP, LP, LLP, FND)
GGY_TRADE_REGISTER_EXTRACT_CHARITY_NONPROFIT — Free Statement for charities/NPOs
GGY_CERTIFICATE_OF_GOOD_STANDING — Certificate of Good Standing (active entities only)
GGY_CERTIFICATE_OF_INCORPORATION — Historical certificate of incorporation
GGY_ARTICLE_OF_ASSOCIATION — Articles/Memorandum of Association
GGY_FILED_DOCUMENT — All other filed documents (Annual Validations, Resolutions, etc.)
Certificate of Good Standing is only available for entities with an active status (Normal, Registered). Dissolved, wound up, or struck off entities cannot obtain this certificate.
Note: Corporate directors are enriched with additional company data (registration number, legal form, status, address) via a secondary entity lookup. This is a common pattern in Guernsey where trust companies act as directors.
Dissolved Company with Previous Names (CMP)
Copy
{ "company": { "id": "CMP5119", "countryCode": "GG", "identifiers": { "registrationNumber": "CMP5119" }, "legalName": "EXAMPLE INSURANCE LIMITED", "activityDescription": "Trusts, companies and other structures administered by fiduciaries", "legacyLegalNames": ["FORMER INSURANCE LTD.", "OLD TRADING NAME LTD."], "status": { "localName": "Wound Up", "active": false, "statusDetails": { "status": "CLOSED", "closureReason": "VOLUNTARY_DISSOLUTION", "additionalInfo": "The term 'Wound Up' typically indicates that the company has been dissolved or liquidated voluntarily." } }, "legalForm": { "localName": "Non Cellular Company", "englishTranslation": "Non-Cellular Company", "standardized": "Other", "iso20275Code": "4C0J" }, "activities": { "items": [{ "code": "10.2.1", "description": "Trusts, companies and other structures administered by fiduciaries" }], "NACE": [{ "code": "64.21", "description": "Activities of holding companies", "isAIInferred": true }], "ISIC": [{ "code": "6420", "description": "Activities of holding companies", "isAIInferred": true }] }, "legalAddress": { "addressLine1": "Le Bordage Rd", "city": "St Sampson", "postalCode": "GY2", "countryCode": "GG" } }}
Note: Dissolved companies include legacyLegalNames when previous names exist. Officials data is typically empty for dissolved entities.
Note: Foundations use “Councillor” as the legal representative role (equivalent to directors for governance). The “Guardian” role is also a legal representative with oversight authority. Resident Agent is always classified as Other Key Person.
Non-Profit Organisation with Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary (NP)
Note: Non-profits have a Chairperson as the primary legal representative, with Treasurer and Secretary as other key persons. Note the compound surname “Le Gallez” — common in Guernsey due to French/Norman heritage.
Note: Charities can have corporate directors (Director role) even though they are non-profit entities. The “In Default” status indicates the entity has failed to meet filing obligations.
Available Documents (Company example)
Documents are returned when "dataPoints": ["availableDocuments"] is requested.Commercial entities (CMP, LP, LLP, FND):
