Australia keeps one national register for every company, and it is run by ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. You reach it through ASIC Connect, and in 2026 through a refreshed companies search that runs alongside it. A free search by company name, ACN, ABN, ARBN or ARSN returns the entity's status, type, registration date and registered office. That is the backbone of an Australian check, and like Singapore there is a single place to look rather than a patchwork of state systems.
ASIC is the national corporate regulator. Its company search is free at the front: search by the exact name, or by the ACN (Australian Company Number), the ABN (Australian Business Number), an ARBN for a foreign company, or an ARSN for a registered scheme. The result returns the legal name, the identifier, the entity type (Pty Ltd, public company, LLP and so on), the current status, the registration date and the locality of the registered office.
Alongside ASIC, ABN Lookup is free and answers the tax-side questions: is the ABN active, is the entity registered for GST, what kind of entity is it. For most counterparty checks the free ASIC layer plus ABN Lookup is enough to confirm the company exists and is alive.
Keep the date you ran it. A company that was Registered last quarter can be Deregistered for failing to lodge, and a deregistered entity cannot legally trade or invoice you.
The free search confirms identity and status. To see the people, you order a paid extract from ASIC. A current extract lists the directors, the shareholders and the capital; a historical extract adds every change ever recorded; a relational extract maps a person's or company's roles across other entities. ASIC's published per-item fees run roughly A$9 for a current extract, A$18 historical and A$36 relational, indexed each 1 July.
The extract is the document banks and counterparties rely on, because it is issued by the registry itself rather than self-reported. For a first-order check it is the closest thing to a definitive answer on who is formally on record as running the company.
It still does not show everything. Shareholder percentages are shown, but the deeper ownership chain behind a nominee or a trust is not in the extract, and beneficial ownership is not on any public register at all.
A foreign company that carries on business in Australia directly, rather than through a local subsidiary, must register with ASIC and receives an ARBN (Australian Registered Body Number), with a registered local office and Corporations Act obligations attached.
When a counterparty shows an ARBN instead of an ACN, you are dealing with a foreign entity's Australian registration, and its home-country register is where the substance lives. Ask which entity will issue the invoice, and check that entity in its own registry.
Every company keeps its own register of members (shareholders), and a proprietary company must report its top 20 members to ASIC when they change. But the beneficial owner - the individual who ultimately controls or benefits from the company - is not on any public register in Australia as of 2026. The government has committed to a public beneficial-ownership register, with stakeholder consultation expected from 2027, so for now the public record stops at the named officers and the top 20 members.
One useful bridge already exists: since November 2021 every director must obtain a Director ID, a unique number that stays with the person for life. It lets you see when the same individual sits behind several companies, which is a partial answer to the control question that the public register does not give.
The gap a contract and your own KYC have to close: ask the counterparty for the controller in writing, compare the bank account to the entity on the extract, and run the list check against the legal name ASIC gave you.
| Field | Where it lives | What a problem looks like |
|---|---|---|
| ACN / ABN / ARBN | Free ASIC search + ABN Lookup | The identifier on the invoice does not match the one on the company's own records |
| Status | Free ASIC search | Reads Deregistered or Struck Off while the company is still taking orders |
| Entity type | Free ASIC search | A Pty Ltd or nominee-held entity introduced as the operating manufacturer |
| Registration date | Free ASIC search | A company formed weeks ago invoicing a large first order |
| Registered office | Free ASIC search | A locality that does not match where business is actually done |
| Directors / shareholders | Paid current extract | No officers on record, or a director shared across many unrelated entities |
| Beneficial owner | Register of members - not public | No public entry exists; ownership must be obtained from the entity directly |
| The five official lists | Separate list check | A name match on OFAC, UN, EU or other lists, run against the legal name from ASIC |
The registry answers identity, status and the officers on record. It does not answer who ultimately controls the company or whether the bank account belongs to the entity on the invoice. Run the list check against the legal name ASIC gave you, and get the controller and payment details from the counterparty in writing.
Yes. Australia has a single national register run by ASIC through ASIC Connect (and the 2026 refreshed search). A free search by name, ACN, ABN, ARBN or ARSN returns status, type, registration date and registered office for any Australian entity.
No. The free search shows identity and status. Director, secretary and shareholder details sit in the paid ASIC extract. Beneficial ownership (the register of members) is not public at all - only the top 20 members of a proprietary company reach ASIC.
No. It confirms the company is real and live and who is on record, not who ultimately controls it or whether the bank account belongs to that entity. Run the sanctions list check separately and compare the payment details to the registered name.