IBA Compliance Connection

Your go to source for compliance!

Some customers ask to add their sole proprietorship’s “doing business as” name to their personal checking account. We know of a recent case of fraud at a different bank where a person deposited checks into their personal account for a business that did not exist. What documentation should we require in order to verify that the individual’s “business” really exists?

—

by

admin

We recommend obtaining the assumed name certificate issued by the county clerk where the business is located. The Assumed Business Name Act requires every person who does business under a name other than their own to file a certificate with the county clerk and publish notice in a local newspaper for three weeks.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

  • Assumed Business Name Act, 805 ILCS 405/1 (“No person . . . shall conduct or transact business in this State under an assumed name . . . unless such person or persons shall file in the office of the County Clerk of the County in which such person or persons conduct or transact or intend to conduct or transact such business, a certificate setting forth the name under which the business is, or is to be, conducted or transacted, and the true or real full name or names of the person or persons owning, conducting or transacting the same . . .”)
  • Assumed Business Name Act, 805 ILCS 405/1 (“Notice of the filing of such certificate shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation published within the county in which the certificate is filed. Such notice shall be published once a week for 3 consecutive weeks. . . Proof of publication shall be filed with the County Clerk within 50 days from the date of filing the certificate. Upon receiving proof of publication, the clerk shall issue a receipt to the person filing such certificate . . .”)