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Blog Post
FinCEN Issues Beneficial Ownership Access Rule
Michael Christians • December 24, 2023
On December 21st, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule providing who will have access to its beneficial ownership database. Remember that starting January 1, 2024, corporations, limited liability companies, and other similar entities will be required to report their beneficial ownership information directly to FinCEN.
Under the final rule, access to the beneficial ownership database will be provided to the following six categories of recipients:
- Federal government agencies,
- State, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies,
- Foreign requesters,
- Federal financial regulators and other appropriate regulatory agencies,
- Treasury personnel, and
- Financial institutions subject to customer due diligence requirements.
Before being provided access to the database, sometime later in 2024, financial institutions must develop and implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards reasonably designed to protect the information received. Until access to the database is opened to financial institutions and FinCEN has completed rulemaking to revise existing customer due diligence requirements, banks and credit unions should continue to obtain beneficial ownership information directly from legal entity customers.
The final rule is available here.
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Michael Christians Consulting, LLC
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