New Zealand Companies Office

What New Zealand Companies Office does

The New Zealand Companies Office is a government regulatory body within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) that administers 25 or more statutory registers for New Zealand. Its core mandates include the Companies Register (756,821 entities at June 2026), the Financial Service Providers Register (15,388 providers), the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) holding 1,762,732 financing statements, and registers for Limited Partnerships, Charitable Trusts, and Incorporated Societies. The office also enforces director prohibitions and processes corporate insolvency events, with 281 companies in insolvency as at June 2026 and 4,580 entities removed from the register in the most recent month.

The office operates an online self-service portal integrated with RealMe as the official authentication mechanism, and has maintained ISO 9001-aligned quality management since 2003. Recent platform activity includes the migration of both the Disclose Register and the Charitable Trusts Register to updated infrastructure in March 2026, alongside the release of a Constitution Builder tool for Incorporated Societies. Support services include concierge assistance and non-English language interpreting to broaden accessibility of the registers.

Revenue is derived from statutory fees set under various Acts, including approximately NZ$245 (excl. GST) for Limited Partnership registration and NZ$28 (excl. GST) for annual returns. As a government entity, fees flow to the Crown rather than to a commercial P&L, and no revenue or budget is publicly disclosed in the supplied material. The office is led by two registrars, Sanjai Raj and Ross van der Schyff, and currently operates within an ongoing review of fees and levies.

Name

New Zealand Companies Office

Legal name

New Zealand Companies Office

Website

https://companiesoffice.govt.nz

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The New Zealand Companies Office is the government agency that administers statutory registers for companies, financial service providers, PPSR, limited partnerships, charitable trusts, and incorporated societies, serving New Zealand's business and not-for-profit sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Business Registration Services

NAICS

Public Administration (92), Regulation, Licensing, and Inspection of Miscellaneous Commercial Sectors (92615)

akta.pro primary industry

Business Registration & Corporate Affairs (Registries) (BPAIAOAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

State/Provincial Licensing, Permitting & Regulatory Administration (Cross-sector) (BPAIABAO), Issuer Services & Registry (Transfer Agency/Shareholder Records) (FSACAKAC)

Keywords

• Business registration services
• Company register administration
• Statutory compliance filings
• Personal property securities register
• Financial service providers register

Headquarters

HQ city

Auckland

HQ country

New Zealand

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Registration and Filing Fees: Government fees collected for registering companies, limited partnerships, and other entities. Fees include Companies Office fee plus statutory levies (FMA levy and XRB levy). Registration fees are one-time per entity; annual return filing fees recur annually.
2. Statutory Levies: Collection of Financial Markets Authority (FMA) levy and External Reporting Board (XRB) levy on behalf of other government bodies during registration and annual return filing processes.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The New Zealand Companies Office administers more than 25 statutory public registers for business entities, including the Companies Register, Disclose Register, Financial Service Providers Register, Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR), Limited Partnerships Register, Charitable Trusts Register, and Incorporated Societies Register. It provides online registration, annual return filing, search, and maintenance services via authenticated self-service portals, supported by electronic signature standards and statutory fee collection on behalf of the Crown, FMA, and XRB.

Product overview

The New Zealand Companies Office operates a multi-register platform administering over 25 public registers for business entities. The core products include the Companies Register, Disclose Register (migrated to new platform March 2026), Financial Service Providers Register, Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR), Limited Partnerships Register, Charitable Trusts Register (migrated March 2026), and Incorporated Societies Register. Supporting infrastructure includes the NZBN Registry and the RealMe Login authentication service. The Online Services Portal provides unified access to file documents, submit annual returns, register entities, and manage account details across all registers. The Constitution Builder tool assists users in creating constitutions for incorporated societies. The architecture is a platform-with-multiple-registers model where each register serves distinct legal and regulatory purposes while sharing common infrastructure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Companies Register
• Disclose Register
• Financial Service Providers Register
• Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR)
• Limited Partnerships Register
• Charitable Trusts Register
• Incorporated Societies Register
• New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) Registry
• Online Services Portal

Quantifiable outcome

• 756,821 companies on register as at June 2026
• +2 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)coreOthersThe Companies Office is part of MBIE. MBIE holds copyright on behalf of the Crown for Companies Office website material (excluding public notices and register contents). Personal information is held by MBIE. MBIE provides advice on Official Information Act requests.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE): Parent ministry of the NZ Companies Office, providing strategic direction, copyright ownership, and policy advice. Not a peer in product terms but a key enabling relationship for the Companies Office's operation as a government entity.

Direct peers

• Corporations Canada (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada): Federal Canadian corporate registry that incorporates businesses under the Canada Business Corporations Act and handles corporate filings. Comparable statutory registry function to the NZ Companies Office, though at the federal level.
• Hong Kong Companies Registry: Hong Kong's government registry for local and non-Hong Kong companies, maintaining the Companies Register and related entity records. Directly comparable in operating statutory company registration and public search services.
• Companies House (UK): UK government registry that incorporates and maintains the UK register of companies, dissolves struck-off companies, and registers limited partnerships. It is the most direct functional counterpart to the NZ Companies Office, operating the same statutory monopoly on company registration and providing online search and filing.
• Delaware Division of Corporations: US state-level corporate registry that incorporates LLCs, corporations and partnerships. Operates one of the world's largest company registries and is functionally equivalent to the NZ Companies Register for entity formation and maintenance.
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC): Australia's integrated corporate, markets, financial services and consumer credit regulator. ASIC maintains company registers and administers business names - directly comparable to NZ Companies Office's companies register and financial service providers register functions.
• Singapore Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA): Singapore's national regulator of business entities, accounting professionals and corporate service providers. ACRA operates the companies and business registration portal and registers financial reporting - a directly comparable statutory registry and corporate regulator model.
• Companies Registration Office Ireland (CRO): Irish statutory register of companies and other entities, administering incorporation, annual returns, and public searches. Closely mirrors the NZ Companies Office model of a government-operated statutory company registry with online filing.

Broad incumbents

• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): US federal securities regulator that maintains the EDGAR filing system for securities offerings and regulated entities. Overlaps with NZ Companies Office's Disclose Register function for financial products and managed investment schemes, though at much greater scale and scope.
• New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA): NZ financial markets regulator whose statutory levy is collected by the Companies Office during registration and annual return processes. Operates adjacent regulatory oversight to the Companies Office, particularly over the Disclose Register.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/CompaniesOffice
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/new-zealand-companies-office

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about New Zealand Companies Office