IRS FFI list FAQs

The FFI list is issued by the IRS and includes all financial institutions, branches, direct reporting non-financial foreign entities, sponsored entities, and sponsored subsidiary branches that have submitted a registration and have been assigned a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN) at the time the list was compiled. The list is compiled on a monthly basis and published the first day of each month.

You can access the tool from the FFI list search and download tool landing page. The entire FFI list is available to download in different formats and searchable using the FFI list search and download tool.

The FFI list user guide PDF provides instruction on using the FFI list search and download tool. See about the FATCA FFI list search and download tool, FFI list FAQs, FFI list video and GIIN composition document PDF for additional information.

On the first day of each month, a complete new list is published for all entities that have an assigned and approved GIIN as of a specified cut-off date five business days prior to the last business day of the previous month. The archived prior months' FFI lists are available to download in CSV zipped and XML zipped formats from the FFI list search and download tool.

Yes. The archived prior months' FFI lists are available to download in CSV zipped and XML zipped formats from the FFI list search and download tool.

The FFI list is updated monthly on the 1st of the month.

The FFI list data comes from the FATCA registration system.

The list includes all financial institutions and direct reporting non-financial foreign entities that registered and were assigned a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN) at the time the list was compiled. The cutoff date for the list is displayed at the top of the FFI list search and download tool. Those who selected “Limited Financial Institution” in question 4 of their registration are not assigned GIINs and will not be included in this list.

Branches from question 9a on the registration and sponsored entities that have been assigned GIINs at the time the list was compiled will be included in the list only if the FI’s registration status is either Limited Conditional or Approved. Branches that are limited (question 9b of the registration) are not assigned GIINs and not included in this list. When an FI registers a branch, the FI is stating they have one or more physical branches in that country/jurisdiction. All physical branches in the country/jurisdiction where the FI declared they have a branch use the same GIIN. Branches are not listed by the name of the physical branch, rather they are listed with the name of the FI followed with “- Branch”.

There are certain entities, such as U.S. withholding agents (USWA), territory financial institutions (TFI), third party preparers, or commercial software vendors that do not need to have a GIIN. These non-GIIN filers are provided a FATCA identification number (FIN) to be used in lieu of a GIIN for FATCA reporting and appear on the FFI list. Publication of the FIN on the FFI list does not serve any function related to withholding tax on payments under FATCA.

Entities desiring to obtain a FIN should do so at least ten business days prior to month end in order to appear on the FFI list for the following month. For more information on FINs, go to the FATCA Identification Number (FIN) enrollment process page.

The FFI list is published in English only.

No, the list does not indicate the FATCA classification.

At this time, the full FFI list is less than 400,000 records.

The FFI list contains three fields: global intermediary identification number (GIIN), financial institution (FI) name and country/jurisdiction of foreign financial institution (FFI) or branch.

The financial institution name field can be used to locate a financial institution, branch, direct reporting non-financial foreign entity, sponsored entity, or sponsored subsidiary branch. The country/jurisdiction field will search for these entities by country/jurisdiction of residence for tax purposes or branch country/jurisdiction for branches.

The FI name field has a 150 character limit for the FI name, including upper and lower case letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9) and the following special characters - blank space, ampersand, hyphen, forward slash, period, comma, apostrophe, number sign, percent sign, brackets, parentheses, and curly brackets (% - / . , ' # % [ ] ( ) { }). The GIIN field is 19 characters, including the period separators.

If you plan to download the FFI list and import it into your system, please see FFI list schema and test files for more information on the format.

The complete FFI list is available in XML and CSV (comma delimited) formats, including zipped/ compressed versions. Search results are available in XML, CSV or PDF formats.

No, you do not need to be a registered user to access the FFI list search and download tool and download the FFI list on the IRS website. It is accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

No, the FFI list file will not be available for automatic download via a web service.

No, the FFI list file will not be available via FTP.

In addition to downloading the full FFI list, the FFI list search and download tool is available on the web site. This tool enables a user to create a partial list using search criteria of the GIIN, country/jurisdiction, financial institution name or a combination of the three. These search results can be exported to an XML, CSV or PDF file. A CSV file can be imported into most spreadsheet products and word processor document products. The search results have a maximum of 30,000 entities.

Tips for using the search tool can be found under the Search Tips hyperlink found in the top right corner of the tool.

There are three reasons why this will occur. The first reason is that the entity is a financial institution or direct reporting non-financial foreign entity but also acts as a sponsoring entity. The second reason is that the entity recently completed a change of financial institution type or a transfer to an expanded affiliated group.

If an entity is required to register under FATCA and also plans to act as a sponsoring entity, the entity is required to complete two separate registrations. For each registration that is approved, the FI will be assigned a unique GIIN. Please reference the GIIN composition information posted on the FATCA foreign financial institution registration page to understand the difference between the two GIINs.

If a registering entity enters more than one branch for the same country, this will create multiple records having the same GIIN.

Lastly, when an FI is in the process of transferring into another expanded affiliated group or changing its FI type, it will appear multiple times on the FFI list depending on the number of changes/transfers. Please note if the entity’s FATCA account is in approved status, a new GIIN will be issued when it changes/transfers. The old GIIN will remain on the published FFI list for a short time to allow the GIIN holder to distribute its new GIIN.

All approved branches for that entity will also be issued new GIINs. The old branch GIINs will also remain on the published FFI list for a short time.

To find a branch, you search using the financial institution name followed by the phrase “ – branch”. There must be a space between the financial institution name and the dash and a space between the dash and the word branch.

The FFI list will contain the financial institution (FI) name or the financial institution name followed by the word “- Branch,” The FI name will display on the list in the exact way it was input on the registration.

No, there will be no other special names. The schema and test files provide the format and sample data.

The Financial Institution (FI) names on the FFI list are obtained from the data entered by the entity on their registration form or online registration system. The entity can edit this field on the online registration system at any time. If this field is changed by the entity, the updated name will appear on the next published list. This will not affect the GIIN.

No, the XML file will not contain a file date or production time identifier in the content of the file itself. However, the date of the file is posted on the web page.

No, the CSV file does not contain a trailer record or end marker.

The CSV file provides the FFI list in a comma separated value format. Many spreadsheet and database applications readily import CSV files. Since commas are acceptable characters in the Financial Institution Name and Country/Jurisdiction Name, quotation marks (“ “) are placed around each of these fields in the CSV file and a comma (,) is used to separate the data fields. Spreadsheet and database applications can interpret the quotation marks as text qualifiers and commas as separators during import. Other applications may display the file with quotation marks (“ “) around each data field and commas (,) separating these values. More information about the CSV file and a sample file can be found on the FFI list schema and test files page.