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NAFCU offers FinCEN recommendations on beneficial ownership reporting
NAFCU’s Kaley Schafer wrote to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Tuesday in response to an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) related to the implementation of the beneficial ownership information reporting provisions included in the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).
The AMLA – passed as part of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act – included this NAFCU-sought provision requiring corporations, limited liability companies, and similar entities to disclose their true beneficial ownership information to FinCEN to create a new nonpublic database.
The ANPR seeks public input on procedures and standards for reporting companies to submit information to FinCEN, as well as feedback on FinCEN's maintenance and disclosure of beneficial ownership information subject to appropriate protocols.
In the letter, Schafer, NAFCU’s senior regulatory affairs counsel, called for the agency to specifically:
- allow for a pre-authorization mechanism either from credit unions or from the agency;
- allow credit unions that obtain consent to receive updated beneficial ownership information provided by reporting companies; and
- clarify examination and supervisory expectations for credit unions that rely on beneficial ownership information for customer due diligence compliance.
NAFCU is supportive of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/AML reform efforts and believes the FinCEN database will have “the potential to allow for a meaningful reduction in compliance burdens.” Read Schafer’s full letter.
An article in NAFCU's BSA Blast details changes made by the AMLA, and the association also has a resource available to credit unions that breaks down key provisions of the AMLA and CTA. For more information on the ANPR, NAFCU previously sent members a Regulatory Alert breaking down what credit unions need to know.