Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

The Government is pleased with the strong level of private sector interest to upgrade and operate the ASIC Registry service.

More than ten comprehensive expressions of interest have been received from a broad range of businesses as part of the current expressions of interest phase of the ASIC Registry tender process, which were due yesterday.

Responses were received from a diverse range of domestic and international businesses across a range of sectors, including information management, information technology and financial services.

A number of consortia have been formed by businesses responding to the expressions of interest request.

This level of interest continues to show that there is an active and growing private market for operating sophisticated data services including databases of business information.

In considering a private operator, the Government will also take into account its strong preference for the ASIC Registry to maintain its existing operations in Traralgon, Victoria.

The Commonwealth will retain ownership of the ASIC Registry’s data.

The Government will now consider the responses to expressions of interest before making a decision on any further steps.