ASIC business registers

The ASIC business registers are the companies, business names, professional, and banned and disqualified persons registers. These registers are the official source of information about business names, companies, and other professionals registered or licensed to operate in the Australian economy.

The two largest, the companies and business names registers, contain the details of more than 3.2 million companies and 2.7 million business names. In the past year – ​there were more than 318 million searches of ASIC registers and 3.2 million updates processed.​      

Access to high integrity register data plays an essential role in a well-functioning economy. The data is used by individuals, businesses, and government agencies to establish trust, support high value business decisions, perform compliance and regulatory functions, and support legal proceedings in the courts.

MoG change of responsibility

Effective 23 May 2024, responsibility for the ASIC business registers and related services returned from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to ASIC under a Machinery of Government (MoG) change. 

The ATO will continue to operate the Australian Business Register and director ID register. ASIC remains responsible for enforcing director ID offences.

There are no changes to current registry services for ASIC stakeholders. The MoG change in responsibility was an administrative change. The way people register, search, get extracts of the registers, and interact with ASIC - all remains the same.

Background

On 13 December 2023, the government announced that responsibility for the ASIC business registers and related services would return from the ATO to ASIC.  The announcement followed the government’s decision on 28 August 2023 to stop the Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program, based on the independent review of the program completed by Damon Rees.

Following the review's findings, ASIC is now considering options to stabilise and uplift the existing business registers as part of the ASIC RegistryConnect program. RegistryConnect aims to stabilise the ASIC business registers and deliver targeted uplift to provide a reliable, secure, and trusted registry platform that supports economic growth. As a part of preparing for this change, ASIC has established an external advisory body, the Registry Business Advisory Group.