businesses

This page is under development.

It covers -

• introduction
• TFN
• ABN
• bankruptcy registers
• PPS registers

     bankruptcy registers

In Australia the federal government's Insolvency & Trustee Service Australia (ITSA) administers the national personal insolvency system, centred on the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (BA). It also has responsibilities under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1987 and the Customs Act 1901.

ITSA maintains the National Personal Insolvency Index (NPII), showing details of bankruptcy proceedings under the Act and its predecessor legislation. In 1998-9 some 166,720 NPII searches were recorded (127,534 through brokers), up from 162,281 searches in 1997-8. By 2003-4 that had risen to 237,827 searches, up from 221,017 in 2002-3.

All entries on the NPII are publicly available and new records are listed within 24 hours of receipt by ITSA. The debtor's full name and date of birth are used as key identifiers. A search will typically will show the

• type and date of bankruptcy administration or proceeding
• identification number
• full name and alias of debtor
• debtor's address and date of birth
• debtor's occupation and business name
• name of the trustee or controlling trustee
• particulars of any prior or subsequent listing
• the end date of the administration

ITSA notes that "any person can, for a fee, gain access to the information", either at an ITSA office or through four information brokers (CITEC, Lawpoint, Australian Business Research and Legalco) that have been authorised by ITSA to provide real-time online searches.

There were 26,285 new insolvency administrations in 2003-4 (compared with 27,592 in 2002-3). As a point of reference there were 1,637,254 bankruptcies in US federal courts in 2004-5 (up from 1,442,549 in 1998), 35,898 in the UK and 92,554 in Canada.

Private sector credit reporting is explored elsewhere on this site.

     PPS registers

Public and private sector entities, including businesses and individuals, rely on a range of personal property security (PPS) registers maintained by government agencies.

Lending by credit provider such as banks and finance companies to individuals and business is often secured by the lender taking collateral. As noted in the discussion of personal credit reporting, that collateral make take the form of PPS - encompassing crops, motor vehicles, art works, livestock, farm machinery and furniture. It may instead involve a real property security, ie real estate. Information about PPS is recorded in a range of PPS registers, of which the best known are vehicle and pleasure craft registers such as the the NSW Register of Encumbered Vehicles (REVS) database

PPS regulation currently involves over 70 discrete enactments administered by almost as many state/territory and federal agencies. Australia is therefore moving towards establishment of a national online PPS register that would feature details of the lender and borrower, together with details of the collateral. The expectation is that the database will be searchable by a range of users, including financial institutions, their agents and ordinary members of the public.

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