3.1.1. Opening Customer Accounts
The MSRB requires every municipal securities dealer and broker to obtain certain information about customers when opening an account. A broker-dealer typically must record a customer’s personal information, as follows:
• Name
• Residential or business address
• Date of birth (to ensure that the customer is of legal age)
• Social Security or taxpayer identification number
• Occupation and employer (and disclosure of whether the customer is employed by another broker-dealer)
• Employer’s address
A taxpayer identification number (TIN) is an ID number used by the IRS for tax reporting purposes. It may include a social security number issued by the Social Security Administration, and, issued by the IRS, an employee identification number (EIN), and an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). Non-U.S. persons may provide an ITIN, a passport number and country of issuance, or alien identification number, or government-issued identification showing nationality, residence, and a photograph.
The broker-dealer must also record the following account information:
• Whether it is a cash or margin accoun