ASIC restricts access to directors’ residential address information

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced on 2 February 2026 that it will remove the residential addresses of officeholders (including directors and company secretaries) from company extracts purchased via its website and third party providers.

While this information will continue to be held by ASIC (and officeholders will still be required to keep their residential addresses up to date), individuals, companies, law enforcement agencies and government departments will need to apply directly to ASIC to access this information. ASIC has yet to confirm the application process or criteria for accessing such information (which will be relevant to administrators and liquidators, creditors, and parties to legal proceedings, among others).

As of 13 February 2026, the implementation date for these changes is yet to be confirmed by ASIC. ASIC's press release stated that it will "engage registry intermediaries to help them understand how this change affects them and continue to monitor the implementation to assess any impacts upon users."

These changes arose from heightened concerns raised by the Federal Government, ASIO and the Australian Institute of Company Directors regarding privacy, identity theft and cybersecurity risks. Prior to these reforms, the residential addresses of officeholders were publicly available on the ASIC register, and officeholders were required to apply to ASIC to suppress their address where there was a risk to their personal or family safety. These changes bring Australia into line with overseas jurisdictions such as the UK and US, which do not provide publicly access to such information.

The changes are part of a broader reform agenda aimed at strengthening protections for officeholders. The Federal Government is currently seeking the agreement of the States to introduce legislation that would provide ASIC with expanded powers to amend registry information where privacy concerns arise. In addition, the Federal Government is considering bringing forward the commencement of certain sections of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill 2025 (Cth), currently scheduled to commence on 1 July 2027. If implemented, these reforms will:

• replace the requirement to publish an officeholder's residential address with an address for service; and
• further restrict access to an officeholders' dates of birth, which are currently publicly accessible on the ASIC register.