Legal entity changes for your business

Contents 

1. Changing the company’s ownership
2. EIN change
3. Changing the store’s URL
4. Changing the name/rebranding
5. Merger or acquisition changes

Currently, Affirm supports the following entity changes for your business: Company’s Ownership, EIN change, Store’s URL, Name/Rebranding, or if it’s a Merger or Acquisition. Our entity change process to update your account takes approximately 7-10 business days.
 
You can generally expect these steps: gathering information and documentation from you, having our Underwriting team review it, and amending your merchant agreement.

Whenever you need to change your merchant legal entity, you have to contact our Merchant Care team using the Business Resource Hub help widget.

Below you will find the required documentation according to each specific change to your merchant entity. Having this documentation ready will expedite the process.

Changing the company's ownership

There can be different types of changes in company or business ownership: 

• The sell-off of assets to a third party such that the new owner’s third party would be the entity that is financially and legally liable to Affirm for the obligations, conditions, and responsibilities outlined in the Merchant Agreement and the entity which will receive the payout from Affirm or an originating bank, as applicable.
  
  • Required documentation:
    
    

    Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
    Fully executed purchase agreement signed by both parties.
    Confirm if there will be a new legal entity name (Will be submitted for review within Affirm).
    		Confirm the new owner’s information and if the entity will also go through a name change.
    		We will review the new entity name, VAT, and any additional business information associated to verify active and in compliance with local and/or federal bodies.

• There was a change of the majority ownership.
  
  • Required documentation:
    
    

    Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
    Confirm if there is a single owner that has ownership over 25% of the company, and list the names of the majority stake owners.		Provide a fully executed purchase agreement signed by both parties.
    Confirm if the entity will change or remain the same. If the entity changes, confirm the name (Will be submitted for review within Affirm).		Confirm the surviving entity.
    		We will review the new entity name, VAT, and any additional business information associated to verify active and in compliance with local and/or federal bodies.

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EIN change

If the EIN has changed, we will need a few pieces of documentation.

• Required documentation
  
  

  Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
  SS4, EIN Verification Letter (147C), or similar from the IRS.

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Changing the Store’s URL

When changing a URL, there can be two different cases.

• A new website/URL is being added, and there are no non-standard items or additional due diligence requests.
  
  • No documentation required
    

• The new website/URL may contain items that are all in pre-order or back-order status.
  
  • Required documentation
    
    

    Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
    Manufacturer's Invoice, and/or Bill of Lading, or document showing an estimated time of goods arrival to the distribution facility or similar.

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Changing the name/rebranding

In this scenario, there will be two different cases to consider.

• There was a purchase of assets by a third-party merchant such that the new third-party merchant would be the entity that is financially and legally liable to Affirm for the obligations, conditions, and responsibilities outlined in the Merchant Agreement and the entity which will receive the payout from Affirm or an originating bank, as applicable.
  
  • Required documentation:
    
    

    Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
    Conversion documents filed with and approved by the applicable state of incorporation or new state of incorporation (if applicable) and new incorporation documents.
    Provide a fully executed purchase agreement signed by both parties (Buyer and Seller).
    Obtain a new legal name.		We will review the new entity name, VAT, and any additional business information associated to verify active and in compliance with local and/or federal bodies.

    
    
    

• It’s a simple name change.
  
  • Required documentation:
    

    Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
    Change of name filing with and approved by the applicable state of incorporation.	Change of name filing with and approved by the applicable province or federal jurisdiction of incorporation.	Local jurisdiction filing showing the change of name approved by applicable local government authority.
    Provide a new legal name and reasoning for the name change.
    We will review the new legal name and confirm registration is active.

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Merger or acquisition changes

This refers to a structure organization change or a merchant acquisition of the company.

• Merchant acquisition.
  
  • Required documentation
    
    

    Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
    Provide a fully executed purchase agreement signed by both parties (Buyer and Seller).

• The structure of the organization changed.
  
  • Required documentation:
    
    

    Affirm U.S.	Affirm Canada	International
    Conversion documents filed with and approved by the applicable state of incorporation or new state of incorporation (if applicable) and new incorporation documents.	Conversion documents filed with and approved by the applicable province or federal jurisdiction of incorporation or new province or federal of incorporation (if applicable) and new incorporation documents.	Local jurisdiction filing showing conversion of legal entity approved by applicable local government authority.
    Is there any change in ownership? Yes: provide a fully executed purchase agreement signed by both parties. We will review the new legal name and confirm registration is active. No: We will confirm new entity name registration is active.

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