On 30 June 2026, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Act 2026 (Act) received royal assent. The Act seeks to strengthen DIN requirements and enforcement to ensure greater protections against unlawful activities such as illegal phoenix behaviour by linking DINs to ASIC’s Companies Register, broadens ASIC’s powers to administer business registers and unwinds the Modernising Business Registers (MBR) regime.

The reforms introduced by the Act have practical implications for companies, directors and their advisers, affecting director appointments, ASIC reporting obligations and the consequences of compliance failures.

Enhancing DIN requirements

The DIN regime has applied since November 2021 as part of reforms to strengthen corporate transparency and combat unlawful activity. A DIN is a unique, lifelong identifier issued to individuals appointed as directors or acting as alternate directors of companies or other relevant bodies registered under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act) or Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth).

Current regime

Presently, each director or alternate director must have a DIN. However, there is no requirement that a director provide their DIN to the company of which they are a director, nor is there any requirement for a company to provide a director’s DIN to ASIC as part of its registration, director appointment or reporting obligations.

As a result, while the DIN regime enables directors to be uniquely identified and traced across entities, DINs currently operate separately from ASIC’s Companies Register. Although individuals are required to obtain and maintain a DIN, the identifier itself is not presently recorded on ASIC’s Companies Register and does not form part of ASIC’s standard company registration and reporting processes.

Integration of DINs into ASIC’s Companies Register

The most significant change introduced by the Act is the integration of DINs into ASIC’s company registration and reporting framework. From 1 July 2027, companies and other registrable bodies will be required to provide the DIN of each director or alternate director to ASIC as part of ordinary registration and reporting processes. This information will be required when:

• registering a new company or registrable body;
• appointing a new director;
• notifying ASIC of changes to a director’s personal details; and
• notifying ASIC when a person ceases to act as director.

Where a newly appointed director has applied for, but not yet received, a DIN at the time of appointment, the Act provides a grace period requiring the director to provide the DIN to the company within seven days after it is issued by the Australian Business Registry Services (Registrar). The company then has a further 14 days to notify ASIC of the DIN.

The Corporations Regulations 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Regulations) have also been amended to incorporate DINs into annual extracts and returns of particulars. Consistent with these changes, the Act includes transitional arrangements to ensure existing directors are progressively brought within the new reporting framework.

From 1 July 2027, where the DINs of current directors or alternate directors have not been lodged with ASIC, companies will be required to lodge those DINs with ASIC by the earlier of:

• the end of the two-week period following the company’s next review date; or
• the end of the 28-day period following the next change to that director’s personal details that is required to be notified to ASIC.

Expanded ASIC enforcement and regulatory powers

The Act strengthens ASIC’s role in the administration and enforcement of the DIN regime. In particular, it clarifies ASIC’s position as the sole enforcement agency for the regime by repealing the Registrar’s infringement notice powers, removing any uncertainty as to responsibility for enforcement action. Importantly, the Registrar will continue to administer the DIN regime, including the issue of DINs.

Consistent with this enhanced enforcement role, the Act introduces a new power enabling ASIC to disqualify a person from managing corporations for up to three years where that person has failed to apply for a DIN when directed to do so by the Registrar. Before exercising this power, ASIC must reasonably believe that the person has contravened the requirement to apply for a DIN within the preceding seven years, provide the person with an opportunity to be heard, and be satisfied that disqualification is justified having regard to the person’s conduct, the public interest and any other relevant matters.

Enhanced ASIC powers

New deregistration grounds

In addition to the DIN-related reforms, the Act also makes a number of amendments to strengthen ASIC’s broader regulatory and administrative powers over the business registers it maintains.

The Act introduces a new, targeted ground for deregistering a company. Previously, ASIC could deregister a company in specific circumstances, such as failures relating to fees, returns or notices, however had no power to deregister a company for having provided inaccurate or misleading information. The Act now empowers ASIC to deregister a company where ASIC has reason to believe that information given to it by or on behalf of the company, including information given in or with the company’s application for registration, is incomplete, misleading, false or deceptive. This new power applies irrespective of whether the information was provided to ASIC before or after the commencement of this new ground on 1 July 2026.

Alternative and electronic addresses

The Act relaxes the restrictions on when a company officer may use an alternative address for service of registry related notices and applications, instead of their residential address. Currently, an officer’s address for registry purposes is normally their residential address, and an alternative address is only available where the Australian Electoral Commission has already suppressed that address on the electoral roll, or, for persons not on the roll, where ASIC considers that the officer’s safety would be at risk if their residential address were disclosed.

The Act removes these restrictions so that any officer may nominate an alternative Australian address for service. An officer who elects to use an alternative address for service must still provide their usual residential address to ASIC, and must notify their company of that address, or of any change to it, within seven days.

The Act also modernises communication methods between companies and ASIC, by introducing a requirement to provide electronic addresses from 1 July 2027. Companies will be required to provide an electronic address for each director and company secretary, as well as for the company itself, in addition to its physical registered office address, when registering, appointing officers or notifying ASIC of changes to personal details. ASIC will have the discretion to send notices and communications electronically to these nominated addresses, reducing reliance on postal correspondence.

Maintenance of registers

Currently, the Corporations Act prescribes limited circumstances under which ASIC can amend and correct information on its registers. ASIC can only make corrections at the request of the affected entity or following a court order. From 1 July 2026, the Act gives ASIC the power to initiate a correction to any error in, or omission from, a register it administers. This change is aimed at improving the quality and integrity of registry data.

The Act also expands ASIC’s broader registry administration powers. From 1 July 2026, ASIC may now publish information beyond what is currently prescribed by the Corporations Regulations where it reasonably believes the benefits outweigh the risks, and that publication is in the public interest. ASIC has discretion to determine the manner or format in which documents or information must be lodged with or provided to ASIC, supporting modern digital submission processes and reducing administrative burden.

Stabilising business registers

Prior to the Act, a number of legislative amendments had been enacted as part of the MBR regime, which was intended to transfer responsibility for the administration of more than 30 Commonwealth business registers from ASIC to the Registrar and establish a centralised registry framework.

However, many of those reforms had not yet commenced when an independent review of the MBR regime in 2023 concluded that the costs of completing the program outweighed its expected benefits. The Government subsequently decided to discontinue the broader MBR regime, and instead implement more targeted reforms to support ASIC’s administration of business registers.

The Act gives effect to that decision by unwinding the legislative changes previously made in anticipation of the MBR regime. As a result of these amendments, ASIC remains responsible for the registries it administered prior to the MBR regime and the pre-MBR framework continues to apply.

What should companies and directors do?

In anticipation of the new DIN regime, companies, directors and their advisers should:

• review director appointment and onboarding procedures, including updating director consent forms, onboarding checklists, company registers and other corporate records to ensure DINs are requested, obtained and readily available for future ASIC lodgements;
• review ASIC compliance and governance practices to ensure the company can meet the new obligations to report DINs, including as part of annual review processes and ASIC notifications relating to director appointments, cessations and changes to director details;
• review the accuracy of information already lodged with ASIC and, where inaccuracies are identified, update company records and make any necessary ASIC lodgements to correct the information, particularly considering ASIC’s new power to deregister companies for incomplete, misleading, false or deceptive information; and
• understand the consequences of non-compliance with the DIN regime, noting that:
  • a director’s failure to provide required DIN information to the company may constitute a strict liability offence, attracting a maximum fine of $10,920 under the Corporations Act;
  • a company’s failure to provide required DIN information to ASIC may constitute a strict liability offence, attracting a maximum fine of $436,800 under the Corporations Act; and
  • a company’s failure to comply with the transitional DIN lodgement requirements for existing directors may constitute an offence attracting a maximum fine of $436,800 under the Corporations Act.

Early preparation will help companies and directors minimise compliance risks once the new regime commences.

To discuss these reforms in detail, or how we can assist you in preparing for the new DIN regime, please contact the author or visit our website to learn more about our Corporate and Commercial groups.

This article was written by Kate McKeough, Partner, Cam Horsell, Solicitor, and Frank Krinis, Law Graduate.