🇵🇼How to verify a supplier in Palau
To verify a supplier in Palau, look the company up for free in the official Financial Institutions Commission (FIC) Corporations Registry and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns a free public online search (by corporation name or number) of Palau's Corporations Registry, live since January 2025, returning the shareholders, officers, directors and good-standing status of a registered Palau company.
The official registry
- Registry
- Financial Institutions Commission (FIC) Corporations Registry
- Company ID
- corporation registration number
- Cost
- Free basic lookup
- Active status
- A company in good standing on the FIC Corporations Registry is a currently-registered Palau entity; a non-citizen additionally needs a Foreign Investment Approval Certificate (FIAC) from the Foreign Investment Board to operate, so check that a foreign-owned supplier holds one.
- Palau uses the US dollar. There is no VAT: since 2023 it applies a Palau Goods and Services Tax (PGST) of about 10 percent (replacing the older 4 percent Gross Revenue Tax), so a supplier is identified by its corporation number rather than a VAT number.
- Foreigners cannot own land in Palau, and a non-citizen business needs a Foreign Investment Approval Certificate from the Foreign Investment Board in addition to registering the company.
- Genuine local manufacturing is tiny and specific: traditional storyboard wood carvings (a real Palauan export craft, including from the men's meeting-house tradition and prison carving programme), bottled water and tuna, while the B2B economy is dominated by a couple of large importer-wholesalers (Surangel and Sons, Western Caroline Trading, WCTC).
Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer
The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.
- Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
- Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
- Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
- Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
- Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.
General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.
Verify it in four steps
- 1
Open the Financial Institutions Commission (FIC) Corporations Registry
Financial Institutions Commission (FIC) Corporations Registry is the official government record of companies in Palau. Basic name or number search is free.
- 2
Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its corporation registration number. If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
- 3
Confirm it is active, not struck off
A company in good standing on the FIC Corporations Registry is a currently-registered Palau entity; a non-citizen additionally needs a Foreign Investment Approval Certificate (FIAC) from the Foreign Investment Board to operate, so check that a foreign-owned supplier holds one.
- 4
Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.
We do this check for you
On every Palau company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine Palau suppliers, not just the loudest.
Related guides
Questions
Is checking a Palau supplier free?
Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the Financial Institutions Commission (FIC) Corporations Registry is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.
What ID does a Palau company have?
Its corporation registration number. Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the Financial Institutions Commission (FIC) Corporations Registry and check the registered name matches.
How do I know a Palau supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?
The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. Palau uses the US dollar. There is no VAT: since 2023 it applies a Palau Goods and Services Tax (PGST) of about 10 percent (replacing the older 4 percent Gross Revenue Tax), so a supplier is identified by its corporation number rather than a VAT number.