QI list lookup

What the QI list is

A qualified intermediary is a foreign financial institution, usually a bank or broker, that has signed a QI agreement with the IRS. It takes on withholding and reporting duties for its own customers, so a U.S. withholding agent paying it can rely on its W-8IMY and a pooled withholding statement instead of collecting a W-8 or W-9 from every customer behind it. A qualified derivatives dealer (QDD) is a QI approved to act as a dealer that assumes primary withholding and reporting responsibility for the payments it makes on potential section 871(m) transactions, the dividend equivalents on U.S. equity derivatives.

The IRS publishes the list of approved QIs, QI branches and QDD branches every quarter. In its words, you can download the list “to verify entities that represent themselves as QIs and related branches.” It includes entities with approved QI status that were issued QI-EINs two months or more before the first week of the quarter. Withholding foreign partnerships and withholding foreign trusts are not listed. Each entry has the type, the name, the last two digits of the QI-EIN (a branch shows its home office’s digits), the GIIN where there is one, the country of organization, and whether the entity is a QDD. This tool holds the 2026 3Q list, posted Aug. 14, 2026, and the IRS’s QI list page has the current file.

Checking a W-8IMY against it

An intermediary claiming QI status checks “QI (including a QDD)” on line 4 of Form W-8IMY and completes Part III. Four fields on the form can be compared with the list:

Then read Part III. Line 14 is the certification every QI makes. Lines 15a to 15i say which responsibilities it assumes when not acting as a QDD: primary withholding under chapters 3 and 4 (15a), and primary Form 1099 reporting and backup withholding (15e and 15f) or not (15g). Line 16a is the QDD certification. What the QI checks there decides whether you withhold and report or it does, and whether you need a withholding statement allocating the payment. The W-8IMY page goes through each Part.

When the intermediary is not on the list

• It may be too new. The list includes only QIs issued a QI-EIN two months or more before the first week of the quarter. A recent approval can be missing for one cycle. Ask for the approval and look again when the next list is posted.
• It may be listed differently. Search by a distinctive word of the name and by country. Some QIs, including several large institutions, have no GIIN on the list, and branch entries repeat the parent’s name.
• It may have dropped off. The changes table below shows the entries that were on last quarter’s list and are not on this one. The IRS does not give reasons.
• It may be mistaken about its own record. The IRS tells a QI that is missing or wrongly listed to check that its account shows Approved in the QI application system, correct its details, and if it is still missing from the next list, email the IRS Financial Intermediaries team.

Until the status is confirmed, an intermediary you cannot find is not a QI for your purposes. Treat it as an intermediary that is not a QI: a W-8IMY with the nonqualified intermediary box, a withholding statement, and the documentation of the customers behind it. The chapter 3 withholding guide covers what that means for the rate and the Form 1042-S.

What the list does not tell you

• Which responsibilities the QI assumed. That is on the W-8IMY, Part III, and can differ by account.
• Whether the full QI-EIN is right. Only the last two digits are published.
• FATCA status. A GIIN on the QI list is not a FATCA status check. The FATCA FFI list, published separately by the IRS and updated monthly, is where a GIIN is confirmed for chapter 4. Most QIs are on both lists; being on the FFI list does not make an entity a QI.
• Withholding foreign partnerships and trusts. They are not on the list at all.

The list in numbers

Entries come from 75 countries. Germany alone has 927; Switzerland and Austria follow. 280 entries are QDDs or QDD branches. The fifteen largest:

• Germany927
• Switzerland432
• Austria368
• Japan249
• Italy210
• United Kingdom191
• France146
• Hong Kong117
• Canada82
• Luxembourg78
• Sweden77
• Singapore72
• Finland64
• Australia58
• Spain41

Changes this quarter

Compared with the previous quarter’s list, 31 entries are new and 18 are gone. An entry can appear in both when an institution changes its GIIN.

Questions people ask