
As a company that is always gathering information in order to assess the creditworthiness of businesses, NCI is only too aware of the long-standing difficulty in trying to ascertain whether the individuals behind those businesses can be relied upon to act responsibly towards their creditors. Thus, it is with some optimism that we greet the introduction of Director Identification Numbers (DIN) this month.
DINs will allow directors, their corporate relationships and history, to be tracked across companies, clarifying potential identity issues, and limiting the scope for phoenixing activities.
Individuals who were already directors on 1st November 2021 have until 30th November 2022 to obtain a DIN. However, anyone becoming a director after 1st November 2021 will need to act more promptly:
Date of Director Appointment | Deadline for obtaining a DIN |
Before 1 November 2021 | 30 November 2022 |
Between 1 November 2021 and 4 April 2022 | Within 28 days of appointment |
On or after 5 April 2022 | Prior to appointment |
As you will note from the above schedule, all directors should have obtained a DIN by the end of November next year. It is still unclear at this stage how information based on DINs will be made available to credit reporting organisations, although a publicly accessible database appears to have been ruled out, at least for the time being.
The DIN is the first service to be managed and maintained by the new ABRS (Australian Business Registry Services) which, when fully established, will also be taking over the Australian Business Register (ABR) and some 30 or so registers currently maintained by ASIC.
More information regarding applying for a DIN can be found here.