If you have an individual that comes in to open an account and has checks made payable to YZ Company how do you know that they are the owners of YZ Company. They have stated that the business is a DBA it is under their SSN. I have looked on the state's good standing and can not find this listed business. I am not certain that they are the owners of these checks. How do I make sure?

I assume that you are opening an account for YZ Company. What does your CIP say you need to open such an account and what CDD is required?

If they are opening a personal account and want to deposit or cash checks payable to YZ Company, send them down the road.

On a scale of 1 - 100, you don't.

Does your state/county/city require registration of fictitious business names. Even that does not totally protect you from checks taken from one jurisdiction to another.

Why is this individual in your face? Do they have a personal account with a history with you? Is the new business convenient to your location?

How much are we talking about? Do the checks to the company match with the claimed sales? Are the customers of your proposed customer local to the new business location?

Unless the business hires employees, they are not required to have and EIN, and the instructions for thw W-9 indicate that a proprietorship should use their SSN, not any EIN for other than employment reports.

Good luck!

Al

The "business," LLC, partnership, corporation, sole proprietorship?

The business is a sole proprietorship.

If it is a sole proprietorship, use of an SSN would be acceptable. However, the states I am familiar with would not allow DBA registration in the name of a "Company" because it makes it sound like there is an entity.

If they have no evidence of a DBA registration there is no need to go any further. Even if they did, an existing business generally does not open a new account with checks from its customers, they open an account with a check drawn on another bank.

If its bona fide, they need to prove it to you. Try a Google search on the name and address of "the company..." If it's an entity, call and ask them if they've lost some checks...