Completing the Company/Institution Account Request Form

A state-licensed company, federally registered institution, or sole proprietor wishing to apply for a state license or federal registration through NMLS must first obtain a company account on NMLS.

To do this, a Company Account Request Form must be completed, requiring the following Company1 information:

Basic corporate information including:
  • Exact legal name
    Note: Legal name in NMLS must match Secretary of State documentation, including punctuation.
  • IRS Employer Identification Number
  • Secretary of State documentation
    Note: Legal name must be entered in NMLS exactly as listed on document, including punctuation.
  • State and date of incorporation
  • The main corporate headquarters street address
  • Contact Employee information
  • NMLS Account Administrators
Federal Agency-Regulated Institutions only:
  • RSSD ID (federal agency-regulated institutions only)
  • Primary Federal Regulator (federal agency-regulated institutions only)
  • RSSD ID of the parent institution if a subsidiary of a federally-chartered institution

Legal Name

Companies seeking state licensure or registration should use the exact legal name as it appears on their Articles of Incorporation, Articles/Certificate of Organization, Partnership Agreement, or other legal document. It is important that each company is set up by their legal name and not by any trade name or "doing business as" name they may use. Using the legal name will ensure that only a single record is established for each distinct company in the system.

Note to Sole Proprietors

Sole proprietors should use their full legal name (last, first, full middle) as the company legal name. Trade names, other business names, doing business as (DBA), etc., can be added later and should not be entered as the legal name for sole proprietor account requests. If the sole proprietor does not have an IRS Employer Identification Number and uses his or her social security number (SSN) instead, the sole proprietor should enter the SSN into the Company Account Request Form. If you have questions, contact the NMLS Call Center at 855-665-7123.

Federal Agency-Regulated Institutions

Data such as exact legal system, corporate headquarters address, RSSD ID, Employer Identification Number and primary federal regulator, will be validated against information contained in the Federal Reserve System’s National Information Center (NIC) Database. If you believe the information in the NIC Database is incorrect, please contact the Federal Reserve Bank for your district. If information submitted by your institution does not match information provided to the NIC database, your institution’s Company Account Request will not be approved.

Note: Company Account Requests for subsidiaries of federal agency-regulated institutions will not be approved until a Company Account Request Form has been approved for their parent institution. Therefore, please wait for approval of the parent institution’s Company Account Request Form before submitting requests for the subsidiaries.

If you have questions about where to obtain information for your company or the correct information to use, you should consult your company’s legal counsel before attempting to complete a Company Account Request Form.

Identify a Company Contact Person

The Company Contact Person is a person within your company that is authorized to answer questions regarding the company’s NMLS record. This person may be contacted by a state or federal regulator or NMLS with any questions about the Company Account Request Form you submit. If you are unsure who in your company has the authority to answer questions regarding the NMLS record, you should consult your company’s legal counsel.

Identifying Account Administrators

The Account Administrators for your company are the persons of your company’s choosing that will have full access to your company’s record on NMLS and will be able to fill out and submit a complete company record (Form MU1 or MU1R) to any participating state regulator or the federal registry. The Account Administrators for your company record will also be able to view information about individuals and mortgage loan originators who have granted your company access to their NMLS record. This access carries important responsibilities under the [Industry User Agreement] for which your company will be liable. Account Administrators must be employees of your company.

Note: Institutions requesting access to the Federal Registry are subject to federal restrictions regarding who is allowed to access and view criminal background check information. To ensure compliance with these restrictions, only employees of a federally chartered or insured institution can act as Account Administrators and only Account Administrators for the federal agency-regulated parent institution can be identified as Account Administrators for a subsidiary of that institution.

For additional instructions and requirements see Choosing your Account Administrators.

Supporting File (state account requests only)

In the Supporting File section of the Company Account Request Form you must provide a copy of the IRS documentation that identifies the employer identification number (EIN) for your business and the Secretary of State (SOS) documentation that identifies the state where you registered as a business. For sole proprietors using their SSN as the EIN, they will need to provide the SSN card for the owner but do not need to include SOS documentation as that is not applicable.

There are only two documents that we accept from the IRS, the SS-4 Letter or the 147C letter. The SS-4 letter is only issued to you once when your EIN is first established by the IRS and the 147C letter acts as a replacement if you do not have your SS-4 letter. If you need the 147C letter, please contact the IRS’ Business & Specialty Tax Line (800-829-4933) for assistance. The SOS documentation can also be referred to as certificate of existence and it identifies the structure of your business as well as the legal name.

The legal name of your business entered in NMLS must match the SOS documentation exactly, including punctuation. The SOS documentation must match the legal name that is listed on the IRS documentation with the only exceptions being the IRS documentation does not have to have exact punctuation marks such as periods and commas. Your request may be rejected if the names do not match and then you would need to make the request again with the proper information.

The supporting documentation file must be in a PDF format and cannot exceed 8 MB. If you have multiple documents, they must be combined in a single file.

Attestation

The person completing the Company Account Request Form must be someone from your company with the legal authority to act on behalf of your company. At the end of the form, they will be asked to attest that the information submitted is correct and that they have the authority to submit this form for their company. If you are unsure who should fill out the Company Account Request Form for your company, consult your company's leadership and/or your company’s legal counsel.

1 For purposes of the Company Account Request Form and these instructions, Company refers to state licensed or registered companies and federal agency-regulated institutions or their subsidiaries.