​FinCEN sets access rules for beneficial ownership registry

Treasury

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) made several changes suggested by commenters to a new rule allowing limited access to its beneficial ownership information (BOI) registry.

Starting Jan. 1, FinCEN will require corporations, limited liability companies, and similar entities to report certain information about their beneficial owners, defined as “the individual natural persons who ultimately own or control the companies.”

Such owners would be required to provide their full legal name, residential or business address, and a unique number available from an identity document. In lieu of that unique number, beneficial owners could request FinCEN create an identification number for them, called a “FinCEN identifier.” This information will be kept in a confidential database, the BOI registry, administered by FinCEN.

FinCEN’s BOI registry access rule, released Thursday and set to be published Friday in the Federal Register, lists the entities that will be allowed to access the database, including:

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