MuniciPAY joins Autoagent

Together, with MuniciPAY, Autoagent is positioned to help local county and municipal governments with a complete and accurate solution for incoming revenue - all in one place.

- Niko Spyridonos, Autoagent CEO

Social Security Number

Why is a Social Security Number Required to Open a Merchant Account?

In October of 2001, the U.S. federal government passed the USA Patriot Act.  Part of this act required that all merchant services providers require a social security number (SSN) and home address for all customers looking to open a merchant account.  This act was put into place after the events of September 11th to help combat illegal financial activity. At MuniciPAY, we do not require a signers full SSN for government entities.  Since we don’t pull a full consumer credit report, we only require the last 4 digits of the signers SSN and home address. The report we receive confirms SSN and address information as well as whether a signer may appear on the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) listing.


MuniciPAY has a responsibility to know our customers for 2 main reasons:

  1. Credit card transactions are considered an advance or provisional credit; there is exposure to loss and liability implications.
  2. The services we provide could lead to crimes such as money laundering and identity theft.

All financial institutions and credit card processors MUST have a Customer Identification Program (CIP) in place to be able to verify the identity of all individuals looking to open a merchant services account.  MuniciPAY utilizes an advanced security check by asking 3 to 4 questions that only the individual who signed the agreement would know. This verifies they are actually the person who matches the SSN, therefore eliminating fraudulent accounts related to identity theft.


In summary, social security numbers are required to satisfy federal and financial institution regulations.  If you have any questions, please contact the MuniciPAY Support Team at 877-590-5097 or support@municipay.com.

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