With the introduction of the national register in 2012, the Registrar of the Australian Business Register (ABR) has stopped collecting and recording business names registered for an entity under the old state or territory laws and unregistered names used by entities for business purposes.

However, these historical names, referred to as the entity’s trading names, have continued to be displayed in the trading name field of ABN Lookup throughout the transitional period.

On 31 October 2023, this transitional period will now end.

The Registrar will not publicly display the trading names that were recorded in the ABR prior to the introduction of the new national business names register from this date.

From 31 October 2023, the only names displayed on ABN Lookup will be an entity's legal name and an entity's business name registered with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).

If businesses continue to use a trading name for business purposes, rather than the legal name or business name registered with ASIC, the organisation’s entities will be unable to use ABN Lookup to verify identity or GST registration status.

Taken from Australian Business Registrar Article on 14 April 2023.