Consultation opens to strengthen corporate transparency under Australia's Director Identification Number regime

The Federal Government has released exposure draft legislation (the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill 2025), accompanying draft regulations and explanatory/background material which propose significant changes to Australia’s Director Identification Number (DIN) regime.

The proposed reforms are intended to enhance the integrity of corporate data, address unlawful phoenix activity, strengthen regulatory oversight and improve confidence in the accuracy of information held on the Companies Register.

As part of this process, the Treasurer has opened consultation seeking stakeholder feedback on the proposed reforms.

Background and summary of the proposed reforms

The DIN regime, which has been in effect since November 2021, requires every company director (including alternate directors) to obtain a unique, lifelong identifier issued by the Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS).

Following an independent review of the Modernising Business Registers program in 2023, the Government has shifted its focus to targeted measures that deliver practical benefits, including the stabilisation and uplift of ASIC’s registers. Central to this is the linking of DINs to the Companies Register, supported by $382 million in new funding.

The proposed reforms include the following key changes to the DIN regime:

• Mandatory DIN reporting: From 1 July 2027, companies will be required to provide each director’s DIN to ASIC at key reporting points, including:

  • company registration;

  • annual review statements; and

  • notifications of director appointments or changes (within 28 days).

Existing companies will also need to supply DINs for all current directors by the first annual review following commencement to ensure ASIC’s Companies Register contains verified and up-to-date director information.

• Director confirmation and verification: Once a DIN is linked to a company record, ASIC will contact the relevant director to confirm their awareness of, and consent to, the appointment - a process that has been bought in to mitigate risks of unauthorised or fraudulent director appointments and improve registry data accuracy. If a director disputes their appointment, ASIC will have processes in place to investigate and, if necessary, remove the disputed linkage or appointment.

• Publication and privacy enhancements: ASIC will be able to publish a director’s DIN, a status flag on whether a director's appointment has been confirmed and an indicator of whether all directors of a company have provided DINs and verified their identity. Further, public display of residential addresses will be replaced with an “address for service”, reducing privacy and security risks for directors. Directors will still be required to provide their residential address and date of birth but access to such information will be restricted to authenticated users with a legitimate need via a tiered access system.

• Enforcement and data integrity: New strict liability offences and infringement notice powers for a failure to provide a DIN within prescribed timeframes will be introduced. In particular, ASIC will be empowered to:

  • issue infringement notices for non-compliance, streamlining enforcement and encouraging timely reporting;

  • disqualify directors who persistently fail to comply with DIN requirements for up to three years;

  • deregister companies that provide materially false or misleading information; and

  • correct errors or omissions on its registers directly and benefitting from near real-time data sharing with ABRS to verify director details.

Stakeholders should note that the Federal Government intends to deliver new company search services in 2026 followed by the launch of new company registration services and the linking of the DIN regime to the Companies Register by 1 July 2027.