Using the New Zealand Company Register in 2025
New Zealand’s official corporate registry, Companies Office, is world-leading.
In 2004, it became the world’s first official corporate register to allow full public access over the internet.
It offers exhaustive KYB data on New Zealand-registered companies. As of August 2025, this register contains KYB data on 749,000 companies – from company names to shareholder information.
This guide is for KYB professionals conducting due diligence on New Zealand companies. In it, we will show:
What information is publicly available
How to search for company information
And how recent reforms are changing the compliance landscape.
What is the New Zealand Companies Office?
The New Zealand Companies Office (CO) is responsible for registering and dissolving companies in New Zealand and managing the Companies Register.
What Business Registers Exist in New Zealand?
Companies Office, operating under the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), administers multiple registers:
Companies Register
NZBN Register
Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR)
Financial Service Providers Register
Disclose Register
Societies and Trusts Register
Limited Partnerships Register.
All entities – from retirement villages to financial service providers – have registers maintained by the Companies Office.
Information on sole traders, trusts and partnerships is available on the NZBN Register.
Information on companies is available on the Companies Register.
Understanding the NZBN: New Zealand’s Business Identifier System
Central to New Zealand's transparency framework is the NZBN system, which provides unique identifiers for all business entities.
NZBNs are available to all New Zealand businesses, and are linked to important business information such as trading names, emails, and phone numbers.
Crucially, the NZBN system is a Global Location Number (GLN), which means it adheres to international ISO standards.
Remember: NZBNs are not the same as the 13-digit Company Number, which all companies, as opposed to other entities like sole traders, receive upon registration with Companies Office.
Be warned: Companies Office says that NZBNs will replace the Company Number.
Which Company Types Are Registered in New Zealand?
Just three company types can be found on the Companies Register:
1. Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)
LLCs are the most common company type in which the liability of shareholders is limited to unpaid share amounts and personal guarantees.
Directors manage the company’s affairs.
The ownership structure and financial reporting structure are flexible, depending on the company’s size and type.
Companies with an annual revenue of less than $33 million have minimum financial reporting requirements, whereas small companies with income not exceeding $30,000 don’t have to report.
2. Cooperative Companies
Cooperative Companies are a type of LLC that returns profits to shareholders as rebates or shares.
More than 60% of voting rights must be held by transacting shareholders (suppliers, customers or employees).
Unlike typical LLCs, they must have a constitution
Reporting requirements focus on member transactions.
3. Unlimited Companies
Unlimited Companies are a rarity in New Zealand, usually used for compliance with foreign legal requirements.
Shareholders have unlimited liability
Feature higher shareholder involvement.
Frequent and detailed financial reviews.
What KYB Data Can You Access in New Zealand?
Companies Office provides extensive public access to corporate data, including:
Company names, numbers, and NZBN.
Incorporation dates and status.
Registered office addresses.
Director names and residential addresses.
Share capital and shareholder information.
Remember: Keep an eye out for the ‘News and Notices’ section where Companies Office publishes notices of their intention to correct the register. A company’s presence on the register is colour-coded, with removed companies appearing in grey and active companies in blue.
Step-by-Step: How to Search the New Zealand Companies Register
1. Go to the Website.
Find the search bar at the top of the page.
2. Use the Search Function.
You can search by:
Company name.
Company number.
NZBN.
Shareholders and directors, active or banned.
3. Refine.
This includes entity type, status, incorporation date, address type (e.g., address for share register, office address or address for records), and address keywords.
4. View the Results.
Select a company from the list and view the results, including information on:
Company name.
Address.
Incorporation date.
NZBN.
Entity type.
Financial reporting month.
AR filing month.
Share structure.
Names and home addresses of directors.
You will also have the opportunity to download company filings.
What Documents are Available?
The Companies Register provides free access to nearly all official company filings, with most of them digitised and presented in a machine-readable text. This includes:
Company Extract: a summary of all the information in a basic search: name, office address, director’s name and address, and the number of shares.
Certificate of Incorporation: certifies the official date the company was formed.
Particulars of Shareholding: Shows the changes to the shareholding structure as filed.
Constitution: the rules and obligations of how a company is run. Companies are not mandated to publish these, whatever their size, complexity or risk level.
Financial Statement: a company’s financial health: their assets, liabilities, employee expenses, and profit before and after tax. Only companies with a significant turnover must publish financial statements. For smaller companies, you will only find an Annual Return Filed stating that the company’s annual return obligations have been met.
Director and Shareholder Consent Forms: the consent given by directors and shareholders to their assigned roles in the company, complete with the date of the decision, their signature, and home address.
Annual reports and AGM meetings aren’t accessible by a web page PDF, as is the case in the UK – they must be requested individually. However, some attempts to rectify this are underway.
API Access to New Zealand Company Data
The register's technical architecture, powered by Foster Moore, provides extensive API access:
The NZBN: for getting information about New Zealand companies and other entities.
Companies Entity Role Search: for retrieving information on entities, shareholders or directors that own other companies.
Companies Disqualified Director Search: for getting information on disqualified directors or banned company managers.
However, this requires multiple integrations with different APIs, which can take a few weeks to several months. Get API access to all of the New Zealand corporate registry, as well as 300+ official corporate registries across the world, via a single access point: the Kyckr API.
Open Data
KYB professionals can also download company information via bulk data offerings, including:
Shareholder information.
Registered addresses.
NZBN data.
Company insolvencies.
Trading areas.
However, these are updated monthly, which risks the data becoming stale. Live access to company registers is a critical component of effective onboarding workflows and due diligence.
Top Money Laundering Threats in New Zealand (2025)
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) reports that over NZ$1 billion annually flows through New Zealand’s economy from fraudulent and illegal activities.
Key risk factors identified include:
Fraud-related Crime: Primary money laundering threat.
Drug Crime: Significant cash-intensive activity.
Transnational Money Laundering: Cross-border movement of illicit funds.
There are evolving threats, as noted in the 2024 National Risk Assessment, particularly in virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and cross-border transactions.
Red Flags and Compliance Risks in New Zealand Company Data
1. Difficult to identify High-risk Entities
The Companies Act (1993) makes no legal distinction between public and private limited companies, which blurs due diligence. Moreover, companies are not required to provide a constitution, which can complicate the analysis of corporate structures.
2. Time Lags
There can be lags in the data.
A change of address might take up to 5 days to update.
Changing your annual filing month happens instantly.
It can take “some months”, says Companies Office, to remove a company from the register, owing to the legal steps involved.
When changes to a company document are made, expect a data lag of 20 days.
3. Limited Beneficial Ownership Information
You cannot find beneficial ownership information in New Zealand. Reforms were mooted in 2022, although these were recently shelved and not included in the 2025 reforms to Companies Office.
You will find the ‘Ultimate Holding Company’ listed, but unravelling complex structures remains difficult. The real shareholders of a given entity might not even be listed – it might be a nominee shareholder or trust holding the shares in their name. Moreover, while all shareholders must be registered, only the major ones are listed.
As a result, New Zealand is not FATF-compliant. The lack of progress exposes regulated entities to heightened AML/CFT risk, especially when onboarding entities in sectors such as real estate, VASPs, and trusts.
4. Problems with Phoenixing
Companies Office has faced problems with phoenixing in recent years – companies going into liquidation, not paying debts, and setting up new companies under the same name and business.
Warning signs include:
New companies created for each project.
Similar company names with minor variations.
Use of "puppet" or "straw" directors.
Unexplained competitive pricing.
Poor tax compliance history.
As many as 400 companies do this every year. Rogue directors can set up phoenix companies using variations of their name, or even go under the radar with commonly shared names.
New Zealand Companies Act 2025: Key Reforms for Compliance Teams
A package of reforms to the Companies Act is underway. These will be rolled out in two strategic phases.
Phase 1
Digital Modernisation of the Companies Act: Companies will finally be able to share information with shareholders and creditors through webpages rather than costly individual mailings.
Enhanced Director Accountability: The introduction of corporate role-holder identifier (CRI) numbers, similar to the DINs of Australia, will help prevent fraudulent and illegal business practices. To allay privacy concerns, directors can list business addresses instead of residential ones.
Improved Creditor Protection: When companies face insolvency, new measures will deliver better outcomes for creditors.
NZBN Expansion: The government is promoting wider adoption of the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), which streamlines business-to-business and business-to-government transactions.
Phase 2
This will include a comprehensive Law Commission review of directors' duties, liability frameworks, sanctions, and enforcement mechanisms. This review will tackle the increasingly complex web of rules around insolvent trading, issues brought into sharp focus by the Mainzeal case, which found directors guilty of continuing to operate an insolvent business.
Still Ongoing
As Lynn Buckley and Peter Underwood noted, the government plans to repeal the 2023 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) amendment, which explicitly permitted directors to weigh ESG factors alongside profit maximisation when acting in their company's best interests. However, this move is considered controversial, and the government is liaising with various stakeholders before finalising this.
Why access one business register when you could access 300+ instantly?
Kyckr provides instant access to New Zealand's complete corporate registry alongside 300+ official company registers worldwide through a single API integration or online portal. This eliminates the complexity of multiple data sources, reduces compliance risks, and ensures your due diligence workflows remain current with New Zealand's evolving regulatory landscape.
Book a demo to find out more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the New Zealand Companies Register free?
Yes. You can search for company names, view director and shareholder information, download incorporation certificates, and access company filings without needing to register or pay.
How do I access beneficial ownership data in New Zealand?
New Zealand does not currently have a public register of beneficial ownership. Companies are required to disclose shareholders, but this may include nominee shareholders or trusts, which can obscure the true ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs). Some companies list an "Ultimate Holding Company," but this doesn’t always lead to natural persons.
What’s the difference between an NZBN and a Company Number?
The New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) is a universal identifier assigned to all entities, including sole traders, partnerships, and companies. It aligns with international ISO standards (Global Location Number). The Company Number, meanwhile, is a 13-digit identifier issued only to registered companies by the Companies Office. Over time, the NZBN is expected to replace the Company Number as the primary way of identifying a business entity in New Zealand.
