NRS-20564 | Business Names Registration records

Full description

The series consists of microform copies of documents and databases relating to the registration of business names in New South Wales. (1)

The series includes application forms to register business names, renewals of registration, changes in details, cessation of business and administrative correspondence.
The contents date back to 1902 when business registration was managed by the Registrar-General Deeds Branch. From 28 May 2012, responsibility for administering NSW business names registration was transferred to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), as part of new arrangements to oversee state and territory business registration nationally. (2)

The series was stored in microfiche format from 1971, recording business name documentation in a form which was accessible to the public at the time. Documentation of business names which had been registered prior to 1971 was also made available in microfiche format at this time.

The records include several microfiche indexes such as the Consolidated Live and Dead indexes which alphabetically list registered and dead business names and companies; the Supplementary Live and Dead indexes which were weekly updates of business names and companies which were registered or de-registered after the Consolidated index was produced; and the Quarterly De-registered and Live indexes which were four monthly updates after the Consolidated index was produced. The indexes record business name information from 1920 to 1996.

Cards separate the batches of microfiche which are arranged in numerical order by business name registration number, commencing with the earliest date of registration. Early cards feature a ‘BN’ (Business Name) prefix followed by a sequential number, which then became a letter of the alphabet starting with 'A'. Each microfiche film is labelled with the registration number and business name.

The microfiche files consist of dead business names until the early 1990s. The remainder consist of records which were considered live when the registration of business names was transferred to ASIC.

In 1984, the records were copied as images onto 16mm roll microfilm held on cassettes.

In 1994, the Business Registration Imaging System (BRIS) was introduced to take advantage of digital imaging technology and thereby cope with a substantially increasing volume of search requests. Images on existing micrographic rolls were converted to digital format for access by the BRIS system.

All new registration documents were imaged and saved into BRIS.

While images were stored in the BRIS system, data for the registration and renewal of business names was managed in the Business Registration System (BRS), an application backed by an Oracle relational database.

The key data from the BRS system was also made available in the Business Names Register (BNR) system to meet ongoing access requirements after the May 2012 transfer of the business function to ASIC and consequent decommissioning of the BRS system. BNR uses an open-source MySQL relational database. While BNR lacks certain features of the BRS, such as transactions handling, it has been approved by State Records NSW as an archival source for the business names registration records.

Endnotes
1. Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
http://asic.gov.au/for-business/registering-a-business-name/before-you-start/what-is-a-business-name/  (accessed 20 April, 2015)
2. NSW Fair Trading, New National Business Names Register http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/Businesses/Business_names.page (accessed 20 April, 2015)