How soon Firmwatch sees a bankruptcy
A bankruptcy is usually in the KBO several days before the judgment appears in the Belgian Official Gazette (Belgisch Staatsblad / Moniteur belge). Firmwatch reads the KBO every morning. This is how we measured the difference.
Updated 14 November 2026.
What we compared
We took all 112 bankruptcies the Official Gazette published on 9, 10, 12 and 13 November 2026. For each company we looked up the day Firmwatch saw the new situation in the KBO, the date of the KBO file it read that morning, and compared it with the publication date in the Gazette, counting the gap in calendar days.
Result
111 of the 112 bankruptcies were in the KBO before their publication in the Gazette. The median was 7 days; the shortest gap was 3 days, the longest 16. One company was not yet shown as bankrupt in the KBO on 14 November.
Why the gap
The court records the bankruptcy at once. The trustee must then have an extract of the judgment published in the Gazette within five days (art. XX.107 of the Code of Economic Law). In our measurement it mostly took a week.
What this does not say
It covers one week of publications. Firmwatch reads the KBO files as the FPS Economy publishes them, usually the morning after a change; if they come later, you see it later.
Private procedures, such as a private judicial reorganisation or the private preparation of a bankruptcy, appear nowhere until there is a judgment. We repeat the measurement and update this page if the figures change.