The requirements for entering the financial institution (FI) or direct reporting NFFE’s legal name are as follows:
- Character Limit and Accepted Characters: The FATCA online registration system can capture up to 150 characters, including spaces. The system accepts upper and lower case letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0–9), and specific special characters: blank space, ampersand (&), hyphen (-), forward slash (/), period (.), comma (,), apostrophe ('), pound sign (#), percent sign (%), brackets ([]), parentheses (()), and curly brackets ({}). The legal name cannot start with a special character.
- Full Legal Name: To the extent possible, the full legal name should be entered. If the full legal name exceeds 150 characters, at least the first 100 characters must match the FI’s legal name. Any legal and numerical designations must be included in the remaining 50 characters. Abbreviations are not allowed in the first 100 characters but are permissible in the remaining characters.
These requirements ensure that the legal name of the FI or direct reporting NFFE is accurately captured and recorded in the FATCA online registration system, facilitating compliance with FATCA obligations.
Sources:
§ 1.1471-1. Scope of chapter 4 and definitions.
§ 1.1472-1. Withholding on NFFEs.
Notice 2016-42
Instructions for Form 8957 (06/2018)
Instructions for Form 8966 (2023)
§ 1.1471-4. FFI agreement.
