Dear colleagues,

 The ability for RIPE NCC members to again open additional LIR accounts
 was confirmed at the RIPE NCC General Meeting (GM) on 27 May 2016. At the GM, members approved the following resolution:

 "The General Meeting approves the ability of RIPE NCC members to create
 additional LIR accounts."

 Members had always been able to open additional LIR accounts until the 
RIPE NCC Executive Board suspended this ability in November 2015. The 
resolution approved by members at the GM reinstates the ability to open 
additional accounts. 

The RIPE NCC has been working on an implementation plan since the GM.
This plan is put forward to make sure that the ability to open
 additional LIR accounts is in line with the spirit of RIPE Policy. The
 Executive Board has reviewed the plan and approved the following 
stipulations being applied to additional LIR applications:

 1. Transfer of resources between LIR accounts of the same member will 
fall under the transfer policy.

 This aligns the transfer of resources between LIR accounts of the same
 member with the transfer procedures the RIPE NCC applies to transfers between LIR accounts of different members.

The transfer policy will now apply to all transfers, regardless of
 whether the transfer is between the same or different members. 

In practice, this means that the IPv4 allocation will only be 
transferable between LIR accounts of the same member after 24 months.
 The document ripe-654, "Transfer of Internet Number Resources and Change
of a Member’s Official Legal Name", has been updated by ripe-667 to 
reflect this alignment (see section 3.5, Transfer of Internet Number Resources and Change of a Member’s Official Legal Name).

 You can view ripe-667 at:
 <https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-667> 2. Only one application will be processed at a time. Members can only make an application for an additional LIR account when there is no other application being processed on their behalf. This aligns more closely with the spirit of the "Last /8" Policy. The RIPE NCC will be able to distribute the IPv4 resources more fairly. Operationally, this also allows the RIPE NCC to process the LIR account applications in a timely fashion. 3. An LIR Account Agreement needs to be signed by the member for an additional LIR account. For transparency and due diligence purposes, the Terms and Conditions for the use of an LIR account will be explicitly outlined and the member will be asked to agree to them by signing a relevant agreement. You can view the LIR Account Agreement at: https://www.ripe.net/about-us/legal/ripe-ncc-lir-account-agreement More information about multiple LIR accounts can be found in the following FAQs: <https://www.ripe.net/participate/member-support/info/faqs/faq-joining> <https://www.ripe.net/manage-ips-and-asns/resource-transfers-and-mergers/transfers/transfer-faqs> If you have any questions about the new procedure, please contact the RIPE NCC at <ncc@ripe.net>. Best regards, Nigel Titley RIPE NCC Executive Board Chairman