Proposals Paper: Access to Company Registers and Related Issues

Date:

Content ID:

Abstract:

On 3 February 2010 the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate law announced the release of a proposals paper, Access to Company Registers and Related Issues.

The paper outlines proposals for reform developed from submissions in response to the options paper, Access to Share Registers and the Regulation of Unsolicited Off-market Offers. These reforms are intended to continue to facilitate legitimate and beneficial access to the registers of companies and registered schemes whilst ensuring that improper uses of registers are eliminated.

This paper outlines four proposals which would amend the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act). These proposals are to:

• require a proper purpose for accessing a register to be demonstrated before a company is required to provide access;
• set down a three-tiered fee structure for obtaining access to a register, with the fee chargeable to be based on the number of members a company has;
• require a company to provide an electronic copy of its register in a format compatible with the requestor's software; and
• require a requestor who seeks access to a company's register which is kept electronically to view that register on computer.

Making a submission

Interested parties are invited to comment on the paper. While submissions may be lodged electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. For accessibility reasons, please submit responses sent via email in a Word or RTF format. An additional PDF version may also be submitted.

All information (including name and address details) contained in submissions will be made available to the public on the Treasury website unless you indicate that you would like all or part of your submission to remain in confidence. Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails do not suffice for this purpose. Respondents who would like part of their submission to remain in confidence should provide this information marked as such in a separate attachment. Legal requirements, such as those imposed by the Freedom of Information Act 1982, may affect the confidentiality of your submission.

Closing date for submissions: Wednesday, 24 February 2010

Address written submissions to:
Manager
Governance and Insolvency Unit
Corporations and Financial Services Division
The Treasury
Langton Crescent
PARKES ACT 2600

Email: accesstoregisters@treasury.gov.au

For enquiries, please call (02) 6263 3971.

Documents Available:

 Acrobat (PDF)

 Microsoft Word (RTF)

Related Items:

There are no related items available for content item 1716.