Business names in the ASIC register

A business name is a trading name registered so the public can find out who is behind it. It is not a legal entity: the holder may be a company, a sole trader, a partnership or a trust, and registering the name creates no separate rights or liabilities. Since 28 May 2012 all Australian business names are held on the national Business Names Register administered by ASIC, replacing the eight state and territory registers. Business names share ASIC's name index with companies, so they appear in the same name search, but ASIC supplies far less data about them and asicapi serves them from their own endpoint.

Business name versus company

A company can hold any number of business names, and a business name's holder is identified on the national register by ABN. asicapi returns that abn, so to find the company behind a business name, take the ABN and pass it to the company endpoint; if the ABN is ACN based, that resolves the company directly.

Business names in name searches

A name search with the default scope (registered-with-business-names) returns business names alongside companies. Use scope=business-names to see only business names, or types[]=APTY&types[]=APUB to exclude them. Each business name match has:

• company.type of BUSN and company.acn of null;
• stateNumber set to the state registration number (also called the NNI number), which begins with a letter or digit;
• state set to the state or territory responsible for the name, which for names registered before 2012 is where it was originally registered;
• controllingJurisdiction of ASIC, always, even if the name predates 28 May 2012;
• partialAddress of null, because ASIC does not supply addresses for business names.

{
  "object": "companyMatch",
  "name": "ACME WIDGET SUPPLIES",
  "isFormerName": false,
  "score": 96,
  "company": {
    "acn": null,
    "formatted": null,
    "numberType": null,
    "name": "ACME WIDGET SUPPLIES",
    "type": { "code": "BUSN", "label": "Business Name" },
    "status": { "code": "REGD", "label": "Registered" },
    "abn": "53004085616",
    "registeredCharity": false
  },
  "stateNumber": "BN98765432",
  "asicIdentifier": null,
  "registrationDate": "2009-04-20",
  "reviewDate": "2027-04-20",
  "state": { "code": "NSW", "label": "New South Wales" },
  "controllingJurisdiction": { "code": "ASIC", "label": "Australian Securities and Investments Commission" },
  "partialAddress": null
}

Fetching a business name

Pass the stateNumber from the search result as {id}, with the jurisdiction parameter. Always use the number exactly as the search returned it; ASIC's guidance is to look business names up by this number rather than by name. The lookup is free (meta.billable: false) and there is no business name extract to purchase.

curl "https://api.asicapi.dev/v1/business-names/BN98765432?jurisdiction=ASIC" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ASICAPI_KEY"

{
  "object": "businessName",
  "id": "BN98765432",
  "name": "ACME WIDGET SUPPLIES",
  "status": { "code": "REGD", "label": "Registered" },
  "state": { "code": "NSW", "label": "New South Wales" },
  "controllingJurisdiction": { "code": "ASIC", "label": "Australian Securities and Investments Commission" },
  "registrationDate": "2009-04-20",
  "reviewDate": "2027-04-20",
  "formerNames": [
    { "name": "ACME WIDGET SUPPLY", "from": "2009-04-20", "to": "2014-01-08" }
  ],
  "abn": "53004085616",
  "meta": { "billable": false, "product": null, "requestId": "req_01J8ZK3V7Q0M2X" }
}

What ASIC does not supply

The data feed ASIC provides for business names contains no addresses and no document list, so the businessName object has no address fields and there is no /documents sub-resource. Requesting documents for a business name returns document_list_unavailable (HTTP 422). The holder's principal place of business and address for service are on the ASIC Connect website but are not available through this API.

Business name statuses

Searches default to current names. Use scope=everything-current-and-deregistered or scope=all to see expired, removed and archived names. All status codes are on the organisation statuses reference.

Name reservations

Before registering a company, an applicant can reserve a name for two months on Form 410. Reserved names appear in name searches with type RSVN so that anyone checking availability sees them. A reservation has no ACN and no state number; instead it carries an asicIdentifier, a unique reference beginning with a special character such as * or +. Scopes that include reservations are the default registered-with-business-names, registered-companies-and-reservations, companies-reservations-business-names and name-reservations.

Passing the asicIdentifier to GET /v1/companies/{id} returns a nameReservation object rather than a company:

curl "https://api.asicapi.dev/v1/companies/%2B12345678" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ASICAPI_KEY"

{
  "object": "nameReservation",
  "id": "+12345678",
  "name": "ACME ROBOTICS PTY LTD",
  "documentNumber": "0E7654321",
  "status": { "code": "REGD", "label": "Registered" },
  "formCode": "410",
  "from": "2025-08-01",
  "to": "2025-10-01",
  "applicantName": "SMITH, JANE LOUISE",
  "intendedType": { "code": "APTY", "label": "Australian Proprietary Company" },
  "intendedClass": { "code": "LMSH", "label": "Limited By Shares" },
  "meta": { "billable": false, "product": null, "requestId": "req_01J8ZK3V7Q0M2X" }
}

Trusts, NRETs and non-company names

Three further non-company types share the name index. Trusts (TRST) and non-registered entities (NRET) came onto the register through the Australian Business Register and hold an ASIC number and a document list but no extract; the company endpoint returns their details and the free /documents list works, while an extract purchase returns extract_unavailable_for_type. Non-company names (NONC) are names of unincorporated bodies such as trustees and estates and appear only in search results with scopes that include them (non-company-names, all).

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