NASCUS Issues Comment to FinCEN on Beneficial Ownership

February 15, 2023 — Yesterday, the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors (NASCUS) submitted a comment letter on Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Access and Safeguards, and the use of FinCEN Identifiers for Entities to the Treasury Department, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Click here to read the entire comment letter.

Within this letter, NASCUS asked that:

• FinCEN explicitly ensure state regulatory agencies have access to BOI that their supervised institutions receive from FinCEN, and
• Financial institutions have greater access to the database as opposed to what is currently proposed resulting in equal regulatory agency access if broader regulatory requirements are imposed under the amended Customer Due Diligence (CDD) rule.

Furthermore, NASCUS addressed concerns over the proposed interpretation of “customer due diligence requirements under applicable law” and requested FinCEN to conduct a broader reading of CDD to include Customer Identification Program (CIP).

NASCUS asked for additional clarification regarding the notification of changes to beneficial ownership information. The notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) needs to address whether financial institutions will receive notice from FinCEN when a previously queried reporting company corrects or amends its BOI. Furthermore, the NPRM needs to address whether a financial institution has an obligation to report any discrepancies between the information provided by the reporting company at account opening compared to the information obtained in the database, in addition to articulating actions that should be taken to remedy such disparities.

Finally, NASCUS commented that without an amended CDD rule, financial institutions are placed in a position of uncertainty. Lacking knowledge of the database access requirements hinders the ability of financial institutions to understand their current or potential obligations under an amended CDD rule.