A silent DIN

The insolvency profession campaigned for years to introduce Director Identification Numbers (DIN) to help combat phoenixing, fraud and other undesirable director conduct.

The Companies' Register is littered with directors who have multiple profiles with slight (or significant) differences in their name, date of birth or other details. I once had a liquidation where a director had legally changed his name but was recorded as 2 directors at the same time (with old and new name).

To its credit, the Government legislated to require all new and existing directors to obtain a DIN by November 2022. ASIC has even prosecuted directors who failed to obtain one.

What the Government has failed to do is require the DIN to be linked to the profile in the Companies' Register and accordingly there is no way to search whether a director has a DIN or is the same person as on a company search. Without such link, the DIN cannot serve any of the purposes for which it was designed.

Come on DIN, MAKE SOME NOISE!