Treasury Ends the Shell-Company Ownership Registry and Will Delete the Records It Already Collected

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule on Aug. 11 permanently removing the requirement that U.S. companies and U.S. persons report beneficial ownership information under the Corporate Transparency Act. FinCEN said in the same announcement that it will delete information already submitted by U.S. persons from the beneficial ownership database. The rule takes effect on publication in the Federal Register. Foreign entities that qualify as reporting companies must still report beneficial ownership information for foreign individuals.

Congress created the registry in the Corporate Transparency Act to make anonymous shell companies identify their owners, a measure passed with bipartisan support and framed at the time as an anti-money-laundering tool. Ending domestic reporting and erasing collected records removes that visibility for U.S.-formed entities and raises the question of how an agency implements a statute whose central mechanism it has withdrawn.

The final rule is posted on FinCEN’s site alongside a Treasury press release and guidance. Small-business groups welcomed the change; anti-corruption organizations said it leaves shell companies available for laundering.