For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt. This page is also available in markdown by appending .md to the URL.
A vendor that collects debts, originates mortgages, adjusts claims or rewires a building usually needs a license from the state or country where it works. The license lives on the issuing regulator’s own register, not on the vendor’s website. Coverbase works out which licenses the vendor’s business calls for, searches the registers that issue them, and shows you what each register says.
The lookup also reads registers every vendor is checked against, whatever it does: sanctions lists, debarment lists, data protection and certification registers. Enforcement actions and exclusions it finds are shown first.
The most common mistake is reading an empty result as a clean one. A register that was not read, or that publishes no lookup, says nothing about the vendor. The page lists every register planned for the vendor and what happened at each one, so you can tell the two apart.
Where it runs
Vendor Intelligence
The Licenses tab of a vendor’s Vendor Intelligence section. License records are gathered with the corporate registration research and refresh with it. Refreshing that research checks the registers again.
Zero Touch Assessments
A Zero Touch run that includes the Licenses section (on by default) waits for the vendor’s license research, then grades the license controls from the same records the Licenses tab shows.
How a lookup runs
1
Classify the vendor's lines of business
A model reads the vendor’s name, headquarters and description the way a reviewer would, and names every licensed line of business the vendor itself is in. It judges the vendor’s own activity, never its customers’: a consulting firm that serves banks is not a bank, and software, data, research and consulting need none of these licenses. When the description does not say what the vendor does, it chooses none and says the description is too thin. Its one sentence of reasoning is kept and shown when no register applies.
2
Work out where the vendor operates
The same read gives the US state of the headquarters, the US states the description confines the vendor to (a local practice, a regional bank, “licensed in Texas and Oklahoma”), whether it serves the US nationwide, and the countries outside the US where it is headquartered or operates. A US vendor that names no states is searched in every state, because licensed firms rarely list them.
3
Plan the registers
For each line of business, the plan takes the register that licenses it in each state and the national register for that line. It adds the business entity filing in the headquarters state, financial enforcement lists when a line is financial, Medicaid exclusion lists when a line is in health care, and the company registry and financial regulator of each country outside the US. Every vendor also gets the global registers: sanctions, debarment, data protection and certification.
4
Search
Each register is searched by business name under up to three spellings of the vendor’s names. A register gets 30 seconds, the whole lookup gets 150 seconds, and Coverbase sends at most three searches at a time to any one register’s site.
5
Match records to the vendor
A register’s search returns every firm that shares a word with the query. Only records that match the vendor’s whole name are kept. See How records are matched.
6
Report every register
Every planned register lands on the State and National Registers list with its outcome. A register that was not searched automatically carries a Look up link and the reason, so you can check it yourself.
Supported lines of business
The classifier chooses from the lines below. A category applies in every country: an HVAC installer in Australia is a specialty contractor, and a recruiter in India is staffing or PEO.Financial services
Financial services
Insurance, title and escrow
Insurance, title and escrow
Real estate and appraisal
Real estate and appraisal
Contractors and trades
Contractors and trades
Professional services
Professional services
Health care
Health care
Vehicles, commerce and government programs
Vehicles, commerce and government programs
Telecom and energy
Telecom and energy
Research stored before these lines existed may show a broader category, such as Mortgage lending or money transmission, Insurance, title or escrow or Contracting or property services. Each is searched as every line it covers.
The registers behind each line
Coverbase’s register catalog was researched register by register: about 1,250 licensing, entity, enforcement, exclusion and certification registers across all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, federal agencies, international bodies and 17 other countries. About 600 of them are searched automatically. Every other one still appears on the vendor’s list of registers with a link to its lookup. A few examples from each family:
These are read for every vendor whose lines or location call for them:
The countries with a planned company registry are Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
How records are matched
A register’s search is a loose text search, so it returns every firm that shares a word with the query. A record is only the vendor’s when its whole name is one of the vendor’s names. Which names are searched. The vendor’s name, its aliases, every name your organization gave the vendor (often the legal name, such as “Example Holdings, LLC” for the brand “Example”), and the official name from the vendor’s corporate registration match. The registration name is left out when it comes from another country or shares no word with the vendor’s names, because that marks a namesake. How each name is spelled. Many registers only match the spelling they are given. Each name is searched as written, without its legal form, without a web domain, with ”&” and “and” swapped, and with its words joined. A register gets up to three of these spellings, taken across the vendor’s names so the first name cannot use them all. When a record binds. A record binds when it carries one of the vendor’s legal names with its legal form, however the register spaces it. Otherwise the name with its legal form set aside must match a distinctive name (more than one word), and every record so named must carry one legal form: “Clear Capital LLC” next to “Clear Capital Inc.” binds neither. A trade name or d/b/a that the register lists beside the holder binds on the same rules. A one word brand never binds on its own. Enforcement and exclusion lists are stricter. A record on an enforcement, sanctions, debarment or exclusion list binds only on the exact name, legal form included. A namesake on a sanctions list (“Example Group FZCO”) is never treated as the vendor (“Example Group Inc.”). Some national registers are also searched under the parent company’s name. Those records are labeled Parent company.Reading the Licenses tab
The tab reads top to bottom: a verdict, the adverse records, the records found, then every register planned for the vendor.License Standing
License Standing
The headline is one of: No license register applies, License held on a register Coverbase does not read, No license record found, a count of enforcement actions or exclusions on record, a count of licenses not active, a count of licenses with no published standing, or a count of active licenses across a number of jurisdictions. Enforcement actions and lapsed licenses are shown as critical. A callout under it says what to ask the vendor.No license record found is not a clean result. A vendor offering a licensed service usually holds a license, so confirm the legal entity or ask the vendor for its license numbers.
Enforcement Actions and Exclusions
Enforcement Actions and Exclusions
Appears only when a regulator’s enforcement action or an exclusion list names the vendor exactly. Read each action and ask the vendor how it was resolved.
Records by register
Records by register
One section per register, with every record it holds for the vendor: Holder, Jurisdiction, License (number and license type), Status, Expires and Record, which opens the register’s own page. Active and Not active come from the register’s status, or from the expiry date when the register gives no status. Status not stated means the register published neither. A record held by the parent company says so under the holder.
State and National Registers
State and National Registers
Every register planned for the vendor’s lines of business, with Line of Business, Jurisdiction, Register, Outcome and a Look up link. Entity, enforcement and global registers are listed under Entity, enforcement and national registers. A summary line counts how many were read, how many to check by hand, how many did not answer, and how many need no license or have no lookup.
Registers Checked and Not Checked
Registers Checked and Not Checked
Registers Checked lists the other registers searched by name, such as NASBA CPAverify, the FCA Register or state license data. Not Checked lists each register that did not answer and each one you need to check by hand. When more than four registers for one line need checking by hand, they are summarized as one line that names the jurisdictions, and each is linked on the State and National Registers list.
Outcomes
Zero Touch license controls
The Zero Touch License and Accreditation Validation template asks the four license and accreditation controls, plus company identity, registration and ownership, disciplinary history and regulatory actions. A run that includes the Licenses section grades these controls from the vendor’s stored license records, the same ones the Licenses tab shows, rather than from a second lookup.- The requirement comes from what the vendor does, never from a word in its name. A vendor whose service needs no license is compliant on ZT-LIC-01.
- A required license shown inactive, expired, suspended or revoked, with no active record beside it, is not compliant.
- A jurisdiction whose only records are inactive is a gap on ZT-LIC-02. An inactive record next to an active one in the same jurisdiction is history.
- A register that was not read is listed as a gap for the vendor to fill with a copy, not reported as a missing license.
- The automated review labels enforcement actions and exclusions as adverse.
Limits
- Public registers only. Coverbase reads what regulators publish. A license on a roll with no public lookup, such as a state bar admission, needs a copy from the vendor.
- Registers that are not read automatically. Some registers sit behind a CAPTCHA or a login, or are not read automatically yet. They are listed with a Look up link rather than left out.
- Register outages. A register that does not answer on a run is marked Did not answer, and its earlier records are kept until it answers again.
- Names that differ from the legal name. A license held under a name Coverbase does not know, such as an affiliate’s, is not matched. If the vendor’s legal name is missing or wrong, correct the corporate registration match on the Registrations tab and refresh. See Corporate Registrations.
- A description that is too thin. If the vendor’s description does not say what it does, no line of business is chosen and only the entity filing, company registry and global registers apply.
Related
Vendor Intelligence
The validated corporate identity every other answer is computed against.
Corporate Registrations
The legal entity whose names the license lookup searches.
Zero Touch Assessments
Triage assessments that grade the license controls from these records.
Zero Touch Assessment guide
The screen by screen walkthrough.