A one-time check of a counterparty before concluding a contract does not make it possible to fully control commercial risks: a company’s financial condition, its owners, management and payment discipline may change already in the course of cooperation. Therefore, Ukrainian businesses should move from one-time checks to continuous monitoring of key partners.
International business information systems, including Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), make it possible not only to obtain information about a company before starting cooperation, but also to track changes in its profile.
According to Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine and head of the D&B-Interfax-Ukraine business unit, monitoring is particularly important for companies to which a Ukrainian supplier regularly provides deferred payment terms or with which a significant volume of turnover is associated.
“A counterparty may have looked absolutely reliable at the time the contract was signed, but six months later the situation may be different. The company’s debt burden may increase, its owner or management may change, or its payment discipline may deteriorate. If the supplier learns about this only after an overdue payment, managing the risk becomes significantly more difficult,” Urakin noted.
International D&B databases are used to track changes in corporate data and assess business risks. Depending on the information available for a particular jurisdiction, a user can analyze changes in an enterprise’s financial condition, its corporate structure and other characteristics.
This approach is particularly relevant for companies with a large number of customers and suppliers. With hundreds or thousands of counterparties, regularly checking each of them manually is practically impossible.
“Businesses need to identify critically important partners. The greater a counterparty’s debt to the company, or the more strongly the supply chain depends on it, the higher the frequency and depth of monitoring should be,” Urakin believes.
A change in risk indicators does not necessarily require the immediate termination of cooperation. It may serve as a signal to revise the credit limit, shorten the payment deferral period, request additional collateral or conduct a more in-depth check.
A separate area is supplier monitoring. Financial problems at a raw-material producer, carrier or another critically important partner can lead to a halt in supplies even when the Ukrainian company’s own financial position remains stable.
According to Experts Club, Ukrainian enterprises should divide counterparties at least according to their level of financial significance and the potential damage from default or termination of supplies, while the most critical partners should be monitored continuously.
“In a modern risk management system, the question should be not only ‘whom did we check before concluding the contract,’ but also ‘what has changed with our largest counterparties since the check.’ It is monitoring that makes it possible to identify a problem before it turns into a direct financial loss,” Urakin emphasized.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international provider of business data and analytical solutions whose history began in 1841. The company provides tools for business identification, counterparty checks, assessment of credit and commercial risks, compliance, supply chain management and work with corporate data.
The official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in Ukraine is the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The specialized D&B-Interfax-Ukraine unit helps Ukrainian companies work with international business data, check foreign partners and obtain a D-U-N-S Number.
The expansion of Ukrainian companies into foreign markets increases the importance of conducting preliminary checks on potential buyers and distributors. The risks are particularly high when working with a new counterparty on deferred payment terms, Dun & Bradstreet analysts note.
One of the tools for such checks is Dun & Bradstreet’s (D&B) international business information databases, which make it possible to identify a company, verify its registration data, ownership structure, financial indicators, operating history and associated risks.
When entering a new market, Ukrainian companies often focus primarily on finding a buyer and agreeing on commercial terms, while checking the buyer’s solvency remains a secondary task.
“Receiving an order does not yet mean receiving the money. For an exporter, a situation is particularly dangerous when the first large shipment is made to a new partner with deferred payment. Before signing such a contract, it is necessary to understand whether the company actually exists, how long it has been operating, what its financial indicators are, who its owner is and how high the credit risk associated with this counterparty is,” said Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B-Interfax-Ukraine business unit, PhD in Economics.
Dun & Bradstreet has a global database containing information on hundreds of millions of companies. A unique nine-digit D-U-N-S Number is used to identify businesses, making it possible to distinguish between legal entities with similar names and link companies within corporate groups.
For a Ukrainian exporter, such a check is particularly relevant when working with companies that are offering a large contract for the first time, requesting a significant payment deferral or acting as intermediaries between the manufacturer and the end buyer.
Depending on the country and the availability of information, a D&B business report may contain registration details, information about executives and owners, financial statements, information on corporate relationships, credit ratings and other indicators used for risk assessment.
“The cost of a check is almost always incomparable with the potential loss from a single unpaid export shipment. International business information should be viewed not as an additional reference, but as one of the elements of the decision-making procedure regarding the credit limit, the amount of prepayment and the terms of the contract,” Maksym Urakin believes.
At the same time, negative information about a potential partner does not necessarily mean that the transaction should be rejected. It may serve as a basis for changing its terms — increasing the prepayment, reducing the size of the first shipment, using a bank guarantee, trade credit insurance or shortening the deferred payment period.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international provider of business data and analytical solutions whose history began in 1841. The company provides tools for business identification, counterparty verification, assessment of credit and commercial risks, compliance, supply chain management and work with corporate data.
The official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in Ukraine is the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The specialized D&B-Interfax-Ukraine unit helps Ukrainian companies work with international business data, verify foreign partners and obtain a D-U-N-S Number.
Questions can be submitted through the specialized D&B resource — dnb.ua, by email at Urakin@interfax.kyiv.ua or by phone at +38 (044) 270-65-74.
COUNTERPARTY, D&B, DUN & BRADSTREET, EXPORT, UKRAINE, URAKIN
Risks in international trade often arise not with the direct counterparty but at subsequent levels of the supply chain. A company may have a reliable supplier that, in turn, depends on a single factory, logistics operator, technology owner, or subsupplier in another country.
That is why international risk management is gradually shifting from simple counterparty verification to the analysis of broader corporate and supplier relationships. This is particularly relevant for Ukrainian businesses because of the war, complicated logistics, sanctions regimes, and the high dependence of many industries on imported raw materials and equipment.
“A company may know its direct partner well and, at the same time, may not know on whom that partner’s operations critically depend. A single problematic subsupplier, a sanctions-related connection, or a production shutdown at the other end of the chain can disrupt a contract in Ukraine. Therefore, modern verification must answer not only the question ‘Who is our partner?’ but also ‘Who does our partner depend on?’” said Maksym Urakin, head of the D&B — Interfax-Ukraine business unit and Candidate of Economic Sciences.
Risk factors include the excessive concentration of procurement from a single supplier, dependence on a single region, opaque corporate relationships, sanctions risks, financial problems at a key company in the chain, or a sudden change of ownership.
For critical supplies, companies should develop a pool of alternative suppliers, determine minimum inventory levels, verify corporate groups, and reassess partners in the event of significant changes. This is particularly relevant to the energy sector, mechanical engineering, pharmaceuticals, the food industry, construction, and other sectors in which the disruption of a single component can block the entire production cycle.
D&B solutions in supplier intelligence and business risk management make it possible to work with global business data, corporate relationships, and risk signals. For Ukrainian companies, this information can provide a foundation for building more resilient supply chains.
In the long term, the verification of supplier relationships is becoming not a one-time procedure but part of a business’s operational resilience.
D&B — Interfax-Ukraine helps Ukrainian companies work with international business data and business identification tools.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international provider of business data and analytical solutions whose history began in 1841. D&B works with data on companies worldwide and provides tools for business identification, counterparty verification, credit and commercial risk assessment, compliance, and supply chain management.
The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency is the official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in Ukraine. The specialized D&B — Interfax-Ukraine division provides Ukrainian companies with access to international business data, helps them verify foreign counterparties, and assists them in working with D&B tools.
Questions can be submitted through the specialized D&B resource — dnb.ua, by email at Urakin@interfax.kyiv.ua, or by telephone at +38 (044) 270-65-74.
BUSINESS, D&B, INTERFAX-UKRAINE, RISK MANAGEMENT, SUPPLY CHAINS
Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly seeking customers, investors, and partners abroad. However, for many small companies, the main problem is not the quality of their product but their low international visibility: a foreign partner simply does not have enough data to quickly identify and assess the company.
In international trade, a corporate presence consists of more than just a website and social media pages. Large companies and banks use professional business databases to verify legal information, addresses, management, industries, the scale of operations, corporate connections, and other information.
“For small businesses, the problem often sounds like this: ‘We are a real company, but no one abroad knows anything about us.’ That is why international business identification is important not only for large corporations. It helps a small Ukrainian company become understandable to a procurement professional, bank, or potential partner in another country,” Maksym Urakin noted.
SMEs should monitor the consistency of their legal and commercial information, maintain a consistent English-language spelling of their name, provide up-to-date contact details, and have a clear description of their activities. It is also important for a company planning to export to understand how it is classified in international systems and whether it can be easily found using industry-specific parameters.
D&B’s international data can be used not only to verify other companies but also to create and update a company’s own business profile. This is particularly relevant for companies seeking to connect to global procurement platforms or work with corporate clients.
Greater visibility does not guarantee a contract, but it reduces the information barrier between Ukrainian SMEs and foreign markets. In many cases, the speed at which a company can be verified determines whether a potential partner will proceed to the next stage of negotiations.
D&B — Interfax-Ukraine helps Ukrainian companies work with international business data and business identification tools.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international provider of business data and analytical solutions whose history began in 1841. D&B works with data on companies worldwide and provides tools for business identification, counterparty verification, credit and commercial risk assessment, compliance, and supply chain management.
The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency is the official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in Ukraine. The specialized D&B — Interfax-Ukraine division provides Ukrainian companies with access to international business data, helps them verify foreign counterparties, and assists them in working with D&B tools.
Questions can be submitted through the specialized D&B resource — dnb.ua, by email at Urakin@interfax.kyiv.ua, or by telephone at +38 (044) 270-65-74.
Ukrainian companies seeking to become suppliers to international corporations face formalized supplier onboarding procedures. For a large customer, receiving a commercial offer is not enough — it must unambiguously identify the legal entity, verify its owners, banking details, country of registration, and basic risks.
As a result, transparent business identification is becoming one of the practical barriers to Ukrainian suppliers entering global procurement chains. A company may meet technical requirements but lose time because of discrepancies in its name, address, registration data, or international profile.
“A supplier to a large corporation must not only be competitive but also easy to verify. The procurement officer must quickly understand exactly which legal entity stands behind the offer, who controls it, and whether the data match across different systems. For Ukrainian business, this is one of the elements of professional preparation for working with global clients,” said Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B–Interfax-Ukraine business unit, PhD in Economics.
Before registering in a supplier system, a company should verify its official English-language name, legal address, information about its director and owners, contact details, banking information, and international identifiers. If a D-U-N-S Number has already been assigned, it should ensure that the profile linked to it is up to date.
For an international corporation, such standardization reduces the risk of duplicate suppliers, fraud, erroneous payments, and sanctions violations. For a Ukrainian company, it speeds up the customer’s internal procedures.
Dun & Bradstreet works with a global system of business identification and corporate data used in supplier management, due diligence, and procurement processes. In Ukraine, the relevant services and support are provided by D&B – Interfax-Ukraine.
For Ukrainian manufacturers, IT companies, engineering enterprises, and service providers, a transparent business profile can become one of the basic tools for integration into the procurement chains of international groups.
Dun & Bradstreet is an international provider of business data and analytical solutions whose history began in 1841. D&B works with company data worldwide and provides tools for business identification, counterparty verification, assessment of credit and commercial risks, compliance, and supply chain management.
The official representative of Dun & Bradstreet in Ukraine is the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency. The specialized D&B – Interfax-Ukraine unit provides Ukrainian companies with access to international business data, helps verify foreign counterparties, and supports work with D&B tools.
Questions can be submitted through the specialized D&B resource — dnb.ua, by email at Urakin@interfax.kyiv.ua, or by phone at +38 (044) 270-65-74.
Before purchasing equipment abroad, a Ukrainian company should check the seller, its financial condition, address, owners and ability to fulfil the contract.
The purchase of industrial equipment abroad often requires a substantial advance payment. Depending on the terms of the contract, a Ukrainian buyer may transfer 30–70% of the price to the supplier before the equipment is manufactured or shipped.
The larger the advance payment, the more important it is to make sure that the foreign company actually exists, has the stated specialisation, production capabilities and experience in fulfilling similar contracts.
A professional website, presentation, photographs of the equipment and active correspondence are not sufficient proof. Fraudsters may use other people’s images, create companies with similar names or send invoices containing the bank details of a third party.
Before concluding a contract, it is advisable to check the seller’s exact legal name, registration number, address, date of incorporation, status, executives, owners, corporate affiliations, financial indicators and payment history.
D&B’s Business ID Report and Business Information Report may contain registration details, information about operations, corporate structure, financial indicators, credit ratings, payment behaviour and legally significant events.
“The more attractive the offer and the larger the advance payment, the more thorough the seller’s verification should be. Photographs of the equipment, a website and a corporate presentation do not confirm that the company has the necessary assets, experience and ability to fulfil the contract,” said Maksym Urakin, Director of Development and Marketing at Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the D&B–Interfax-Ukraine business unit and PhD in Economics.
The bank details should be separately cross-checked against the legal entity specified in the contract. A change of bank account immediately before payment, a request to transfer money to another company or the use of a bank in a third country requires an additional explanation.
The risk can be reduced through staged payments, a documentary letter of credit, a bank guarantee, insurance, an independent inspection of the production facility or an inspection of the equipment before shipment.
If the seller is an intermediary, the buyer should understand who directly manufactures the equipment, who is responsible for the warranty and who will bear the obligations in the event of a delay or technical defect.
Verification is also necessary after the contract has been signed, especially if manufacturing takes several months. A deterioration in financial condition, a change of ownership or the cessation of operations may affect the fulfilment of the order.
Dun & Bradstreet has operated in the field of business information and risk assessment since 1841. The company provides international business reports and data on companies’ payment behaviour, corporate affiliations, creditworthiness and ownership structures.
Interfax-Ukraine is D&B’s official representative in Ukraine. The agency’s specialised unit helps Ukrainian companies order checks on foreign manufacturers, sellers and suppliers. Interfax-Ukraine has operated since 1992 and is an independent Ukrainian news agency.
For enquiries, please visit D&B’s specialised website at dnb.ua, email Urakin@interfax.kyiv.ua or call +38 (044) 270-65-74.
