An authorized signatory form is the document a business uses to tell a bank, lender, or counterparty exactly who is allowed to sign checks, approve wire transfers, open or close accounts, and otherwise bind the entity. Filling one out is rarely a solo task: you’ll need a board resolution naming each signatory, government-issued photo ID for every person listed, your EIN, and often a notary. Gathering those pieces before you sit down with the form keeps you from making a second trip to the branch.
What to Gather Before You Start
Banks almost never process a signatory form on its own. The exact packet varies by institution, but plan on bringing:
- A corporate resolution or certificate of authority from your board of directors (or members, for an LLC) naming each authorized person by name and title and spelling out what they’re allowed to do. The names and titles here must match the signatory form exactly.
- A current driver’s license or passport for every person being added. If a name has changed through marriage or court order, bring the marriage certificate or decree that links the two names.
- Your IRS-assigned EIN, entered exactly as it appears on your tax records. Some banks want to see the CP 575 confirmation letter itself.
- Your articles of incorporation or organization, confirming the entity’s legal existence.
- The operating agreement or bylaws that define who has authority to act and how it’s granted.
Some institutions also want a certificate of incumbency: a document from the corporate secretary that lists current officers and directors with their titles and specimen signatures, usually under the corporate seal. Banks sometimes prefer it over a plain signatory form because the secretary certifies accuracy and a notary authenticates it. If yours is unfamiliar with the format, registered agent services and corporate attorneys can prepare one quickly.
Filling In the Form
The form is usually one or two pages. Every institution has its own version, but the fields track closely:
- Business information: the entity’s legal name as registered with the state, the EIN, the business address, and the account number if you’re modifying an existing account.
- Signatory details: each person’s full legal name, title (CEO, Treasurer, Managing Member, and so on), date of birth, Social Security number, and contact information.
- Specimen signature: a space where each signatory physically signs. Tellers use this sample as the reference when comparing signatures on checks and withdrawal slips, so it needs to match how the person actually signs.
- Type of authority: some forms let you specify whether a person can sign checks, approve wire transfers, access online banking, or all three. Be deliberate. Giving a bookkeeper full wire authority when they only need check-signing creates risk you don’t need to take.
A few details trip people up. The entity name must appear exactly as it does on your articles of incorporation. “Smith & Jones LLC” and “Smith and Jones, LLC” are not the same string in a compliance system. The resolution’s effective date needs to be on or before the date you sign the form, or the bank may reject it as premature. Check Social Security numbers digit by digit. A single transposition can stall the whole package while compliance runs it down.
Drafting the Corporate Resolution
The resolution is the piece most likely to delay you, because many small businesses have never written one. It doesn’t need to be long, but it needs to be precise. A signing-authority resolution is a formal declaration by the board of directors (or LLC members) authorizing specific people by name and title to act on the company’s behalf with a financial institution.
The resolution should state the date it was passed, identify the institution by name, list each authorized signatory with their full name and title, and describe the scope of authority being granted — whether that’s all banking transactions or something narrower like check signing only. The corporate secretary, or another officer who is not one of the signatories being authorized, signs the certification attesting that the resolution was properly adopted in accordance with the bylaws.
Banks take this document seriously. Capital One requires a certified copy of the resolution delivered alongside the signatory form, with the names on both documents matching exactly.1Capital One. Authorized Signer Modification Form Citibank’s template requires the resolution to confirm it was passed in accordance with the company’s articles of association and that it remains in force until a superseding resolution is delivered in writing.2Citibank. Sample Resolution for Opening Account With Citibank If your bank doesn’t offer a template, ask. Most commercial banking departments have one they prefer.
Notarization
Not every signatory form requires notarization, but many do, especially for higher-value accounts and lending relationships. When it’s required, each signatory must appear in person before the notary and either sign in the notary’s presence or acknowledge an existing signature as theirs. The notary verifies identity through a government-issued photo ID, then affixes a seal and signature.
Fees vary by state. Some states cap a standard acknowledgment as low as $2 per signature; others allow up to $25. Most sit between $5 and $15 for an in-person notarization. Remote online notarization, where available, often runs higher, up to $25 or $30. Because each signatory’s signature is a separate notarial act, the fees add up when you’re onboarding several people. Many banks keep a notary on staff who will handle account documents at no charge, so ask before paying an outside notary.
Submitting the Form
How you submit depends on the institution. Many banks still want originals delivered in person to a branch or commercial banking officer, particularly where specimen signatures are involved. A scan doesn’t serve the same verification purpose as ink on paper. Some banks have moved to encrypted upload portals for PDFs, but even then you may need to present originals before the digital copies are accepted.
Once a package is received, a compliance team reviews it for consistency. Do the names on the resolution match the signatory form? Is the resolution properly dated and signed by someone other than the signatories being authorized? Does the EIN match the account records? Review typically takes three to five business days. Confirmation usually arrives by email or through the online banking dashboard. If something doesn’t line up, expect a phone call asking for a correction rather than a flat rejection. The most common snags are name mismatches between the form and the resolution, missing notarization, and unsigned certifications.
Beneficial Ownership Certification
Opening a new business account triggers a separate federal requirement. Under the Bank Secrecy Act’s customer due diligence rule, the bank must collect information on every individual who owns 25 percent or more of the entity’s equity, plus at least one individual with significant responsibility to control or manage the company, usually a CEO, CFO, president, or managing member.3eCFR. 31 CFR 1010.230 – Beneficial Ownership Requirements for Legal Entity Customers
In practice, the person opening the account completes a beneficial ownership certification, sometimes built into the signatory form itself, with each beneficial owner’s name, date of birth, address, and Social Security or passport number. In a small LLC with two owners where one is the authorized signatory, that person likely appears on both the signatory form and the certification.
This is not the same as the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership reporting to FinCEN. As of March 2025, FinCEN removed BOI reporting requirements for all entities created in the United States, so domestic companies no longer file ownership reports with the federal government.4FinCEN.gov. FinCEN Removes Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for U.S. Companies and U.S. Persons The bank’s certification under 31 CFR 1010.230 is a separate rule and still applies.
Setting Signing Limits
Filling out the form is the right moment to lock in internal controls over who can approve what. Many businesses set dollar thresholds that require a second signature — any check or wire above $5,000, for example, needs two signatories rather than one. Dual control isn’t a banking regulation. It’s an internal policy you implement by specifying it on the signatory form or in a separate banking agreement.
Tiered limits are useful when signatories sit at different levels of seniority. You might authorize a bookkeeper to sign checks up to $2,500, a controller to approve payments up to $25,000, and require both the CFO and CEO above that. The bank enforces whatever limits you set, so think the thresholds through before submitting. Changing them later means a new resolution and an updated signatory form, the same paperwork you’re doing now.
Personal Liability for Signing
Signing on behalf of a business creates a fiduciary relationship. The signatory owes the company a duty of loyalty and a duty of care, meaning every transaction must serve the entity’s interests rather than personal benefit. Writing company checks for personal expenses exposes the signer to civil liability and potentially criminal fraud charges.
There’s also a technical trap. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, adopted in every state, a representative who signs a negotiable instrument such as a check or promissory note without clearly indicating they’re signing in a representative capacity can become personally liable on that instrument. The safest practice is to sign with the entity’s name first, then your name and title below: “Acme Corp, by Jane Smith, Treasurer.” Signing just “Jane Smith” on a company check leaves you having to prove the other party knew you weren’t signing personally. On checks drawn from a clearly identified company account the risk is lower, but on standalone promissory notes or drafts it’s real.
Updating or Revoking Authority
When someone leaves the company or changes roles, updating the signatory form should be near the top of the offboarding checklist, not something that drifts a few weeks past the departure. The process mirrors the original setup: draft a new corporate resolution removing the departing signatory (or adding a replacement), have it signed by the appropriate officer, and submit it with a new signatory form. The revised form replaces all previous versions. Anyone not listed on the new form loses access.
Speed matters because of apparent authority. If a former signatory walks into a branch or contacts a vendor and signs something, and the third party has no reason to know the authority was revoked, the company can be bound by that signature. The third party acted in good faith based on what the company previously represented, and courts generally protect them. The reliable defense is prompt notification. Update the bank, inform vendors and counterparties in writing, and revoke digital access the same day the person’s authority ends.
Death of a sole signatory can lock a company out of its own accounts until a new resolution is passed and delivered to the bank. Keeping at least two authorized signatories on every account avoids that bottleneck.
Using the Form Abroad
If you’re using an authorized signatory form or corporate resolution outside the United States — opening a foreign bank account, signing an international contract, registering with a foreign agency — the receiving party will likely require an apostille. An apostille is a certification from a state’s secretary of state (or equivalent office) that authenticates the notary’s seal and signature so the document is recognized in countries that belong to the 1961 Hague Convention. Fees generally run between $10 and $26 per document. Processing ranges from same-day service in some states to several weeks in others, so build the timing into any international deadline.