Compliance
Public-register data versus credit-reporting information: what each can and cannot tell you
A company search and a credit file answer different questions and sit under different rules. Confusing the two is a common source of over-collection.
By Mike Gillam, Managing Director
Published · Reviewed
Two categories of record turn up constantly in search work, and they are often talked about as if they were interchangeable. They are not. Public-register data and credit-reporting information answer different questions, come from different legal foundations, and sit under different access rules. Knowing which one you are looking at, and why, is one of the more practical compliance skills a search team can have.
Public-register data
Public registers exist because Parliament decided that certain facts should be available for anyone to check: who owns a piece of land, who directs and owns a company, whether a security interest has been registered over an asset, and whether a person or company is in an insolvency process. Access does not depend on demonstrating a specific need beyond payment of the applicable fee, though the use of what you find is still subject to the Privacy Act 2020 where personal information is involved.
The main New Zealand public registers
- Land title records held by Land Information New Zealand show registered ownership, the estate held, and registered interests such as mortgages and caveats. See our property and title search page.
- The Companies Register shows incorporation details, directors, shareholders and filing history. See our company and director search page.
- The Personal Property Securities Register shows registered security interests over personal property. See our PPSR search page.
- Insolvency records show bankruptcy, no-asset procedures and company liquidation status. See our insolvency search page.
These records are strong for identity, ownership and structure. They are weak, or entirely silent, on a person's current residential address and financial conduct, which is where credit-reporting information tends to fill the gap.
Credit-reporting information
Credit reporting is regulated separately because it deals with information that can affect a person's ability to obtain finance, employment or a tenancy, and because it is compiled and held by a small number of private-sector credit reporters rather than published openly. The Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020 sits under the Privacy Act 2020 and sets specific conditions on who may access a credit file, for what purposes, and what accuracy and correction obligations apply. Address history drawn from credit applications is often the most current address source available, precisely because it updates each time someone applies for credit, finance or a utility account. See our note on the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020 for collections teams and our credit-linked address search page.
Access is not open to anyone who pays a fee. Organisations must have an approved need, such as assessing creditworthiness, managing an existing debt, or a permitted collections purpose, and each access is logged by the credit reporter under the Code.
Where the two are confused, and why it matters
The most common error is treating a credit-linked search as if it were as freely available as a company or title search, running it for a purpose the Code does not permit, such as general due diligence with no debt or credit relationship behind it. The reverse error is assuming a public register search on its own establishes a current address, when it may only show a service address that is months or years old. Both errors are avoidable once the distinction is clear: use public registers for ownership, structure and status, and use credit-linked data, where you are entitled to, for currency of contact information and credit conduct.
Coming-soon integrations for individual and commercial credit checks and NZTA vehicle to registered person data are currently in integration on intelID and will extend this distinction further once available.
A simple rule of thumb
Ask what question you are actually trying to answer. If it is "who owns this, and what is registered against it", a public register answers it. If it is "where does this person live now, and can this organisation be paid", credit-linked data, accessed for a permitted purpose, is usually the better source. Running the wrong one is not just inefficient, it can be a compliance problem in its own right.
Running both, correctly, in one place
intelID separates these source categories clearly in the platform and requires an authorised-purpose declaration before any credit-linked search executes, alongside audit logging on every search regardless of source. See the full list of integrated data sources, the authorised-purpose controls that enforce this distinction, our compliance page, and how credit and collections teams use intelID. To have accounts issued, request access.