Are all small businesses which do not have any kind of registered name required to get a "fictitious name.?" (or is such a requirement in Oklahoma? If so, if a teenager is mowing lawns (or even a husband and wife) have a weekend lawn mowing service and he or they want a business account, must these people apply for a Fictitious name?

That will largely depend on your state. A good resource is your Secretary of State website. If it is not required by your state you will need to see what your CIP requires.

We do require all customers using an Assumed Business Name (ABN) to have it registered if they are not a club, civic group etc.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-establish-sole-proprietorship-oklahoma.html

the SOS site did not give any specifics

If so, if a teenager is mowing lawns (or even a husband and wife) have a weekend lawn mowing service and he or they want a business account, must these people apply for a Fictitious name?

Are they operating under a business name or are they getting cash and checks payable to themselves personally? Who you allow to have a business account is your call and has nothing to do with whether or not someone needs a fictitious name certificate.

I should note that if the business name has the individuals name in it and it is not an LLC, CORP, etc. we don't require an ABN.

My requirement for CIP in multiple banks and in 2 states is I require an assumed name registration if they 'do business' in a name that is not their primary company name. Could be a corporation, could be a sole prop, both can use assumed/fictitious names.

Disney DBA Pixar would require an assumed name certificate.
John Smith DBA Red River Remodeling would require an assumed name
John Smith DBA John Smith Remodeling would NOT require an assumed name because it is not different than the primary name

And 'doing business' means any kind of activity under a different name. If the sign in front of their location is a different name they are doing business under an assumed name. If the panel on the side of their truck has a different name they are using an assumed name. If they will receive ACH's or checks payable to a different name they are using an assumed/fictitious name.

This is what makes sense to me. But I agree laws differ from state to state. In my state, sole props are required to register but corporations are not. But if you want your new account openers to set up DBA's and also want to establish a CIP requirement for the DBA record, then assumed name registration is what makes sense to me.

But if you want your new account openers to set up DBA's

That is not the Bank's call.

I meant set them up on our system as opposed to leaving them off entirely (even though they exist) just because it's easier and they avoid having 30 day tracking on exceptions.

Thaks for the INfo, think I need to look more in dpeth att he OK. Sec of state site.

Neither your internal mechanism for tracking and resolving CIP exceptions, nor the comparative ease of omitting an assumed name from the account styling should be factors in the decision. If the customer is seeking to transact (deposit checks, write checks, accept merchant payments, etc.) under an assumed, then the bank should only allow them to do so if the assumed name is appropriately included in the account title.

A lot of this is less of a CIP requirement and more of a UCC Article 3 issue. If someone is seeking to deposit a check made payable to Red River Remodeling, and the account is in the name of John Smith, you may very well have CIP'd John Smith to the Nth degree, but you have no basis to conclude the John Smith has the authority to endorse that check.

As the question is in the BSA Forum, your respondents have tried to make it a CIP issue. The direct answer to the question asked is that DBA registration requirements are purely an issue of state law; there is no generic answer. Your bank guarantees every endorsement. If someone is depositing checks in a name other than their own it would be important that your bank verify they have some legal right to use that name whether the state required it or not.

Do you check to make sure a business is registered with the State you are in? Example: We have a customer who is incorporated in Nevada but nothing appears on our State website showing it is registered here.

It would usually depend on whether or not they are doing business in your State and the requisite registration requirements. Usually, only having a banking relationship is not considered doing business. But if that is the case - what are they doing at your bank?

Person is wanting to start an independent movie production company.

That does not really answer the question. Where are they planning to "do business"? In your State? And how did a movie production start-up business land in your bank? What is their background? There is more to this than just a company registration issue. Anyone can register a company and anyone can scam hundreds of people to invest in a get rich quick scheme. Sorry, I am always sceptic of these off the wall type scenarios. Why form in Nevada and then land at your bank unless you are in the area where they are a lot of movie being produced. If you are, then you should have the expertise to vet a new company.

Red, do your due diligence. Our experience is that "movie production companies" when asked will almost always say they are expecting large incoming wires from "investors" in individual movie projects, usually foreign in origin. There's just no way a no-experience start-up movie production company will have these kinds of international investor connections. Be wary.

Thanks for the input!