FinCEN Releases Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Access to Beneficial Ownership Information

On December 16, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) invited public comment on its proposed rule (the “Proposed Access Rule”) implementing the requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) to provide authorized recipients access to beneficial ownership information collected by FinCEN. The comment period for the Proposed Access Rule will close on February 14, 2023.

As discussed in our prior client alerts, under the CTA, which was passed as part of the 2020 Anti-Money Laundering Act (“AMLA”), Congress created a new federal framework for the reporting, disclosure, and use of beneficial ownership information. The CTA aims to combat the illicit use of shell companies to hide the proceeds of crime, and to transfer some of the burden of identifying the owners of such companies from financial institutions to the government itself.

This alert summarizes five key takeaways from the Proposed Access Rule.