On December 15, 2022, FinCEN issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would implement provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) that govern the access to and protection of beneficial ownership information. The proposed rule is one of three rulemakings planned to implement the CTA, and follows the final reporting rule that FinCEN issued on September 30, 2022.
According to FinCEN, the proposed rule will include regulations that would govern the circumstances under which such information may be disclosed to Federal agencies; state, local, tribal, and foreign governments; and financial institutions, and how it must be protected. It also specifies how government officials, certain financial institutions and their regulators would access beneficial ownership information in order to fulfill their roles in combatting money laundering and other illicit activities. In addition, the proposed rule establishes safeguards to protect the sensitive information consistent with the goals and requirements of the CTA. The NPRM also proposes amendments to the final reporting rule to specify when reporting companies may report FinCEN identifiers associated with entities.
Comments to the proposed rulemaking will be accepted within 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.
Read FinCEN’s announcement here.
The NPRM can be found here.