There were some discussions in this week's deposit seminars regarding TIN verification. The services listed below are based on primary, not secondary resources and are free. Use of the IRS e-service is considered as a factor in requests for abatement of TIN related penalties:

IRS Rev Proc. 2003-9, page 516 Internal Revenue Bulletin 2003-8.

IRS Publication 2108

IRS E Services web site

SSA SSN Verfication web site. (SSNs only; employers only)

Does this mean that our bank can sign up for one of these services to perform such checks as matching TIN's to names on CTR's?

The E-Services link supports several services. One is:

Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Matching
TIN Matching is a pre-filing service offered to payers and/or authorized agents who submit any of six information returns subject to backup withholding (Forms 1099-B, INT, DIV, OID, PATR, and MISC). With Interactive TIN Matching authorized payers can match up to 25 payee TIN and name combinations against IRS records prior to submitting an information return. Bulk TIN Matching allows payers and/or authorized agents filing any of the six information returns to match up to 100,000 TIN and name combinations. In order to participate in TIN Matching, payers must be listed in the IRS Payer Account File (PAF) database.

It is not designed to support CTR filing, but can be used in support of CIP and information reporting on accounts subject to the reporting requirements noted.