America’s Credit Unions’ Nick St. John appeared on the Payments Pros podcast to discuss the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and related developments from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The CTA was enacted in 2021 and aims to combat the use of anonymous legal entities for money laundering.
It mandates that legal entities report their beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN, which will maintain a database accessible to law enforcement, financial institutions, and other entities that meet specific criteria.
Credit unions are not considered a “reporting company” under the legislation, exempting them from reporting BOI to FinCEN, but America’s Credit Unions has called on FinCEN to release instructions and guidance related to accessing the database as soon as possible.
On the podcast, St. John also clarified the difference between beneficial ownership reporting to financial institutions and the new reporting to FinCEN, and discussed potential future FinCEN developments including when the information will be made available to financial institutions and changes to existing rules to align with the CTA.
