Banks Call Proposed FinCEN Registry Useless

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is required to create a registry of the beneficial owners of legal entities formed or registered in the United States. The legislation is supposed to set up a database, while minimizing the compliance burden on the regulated entities, but the American Bankers Association doesn’t believe it will work. In a February 14 letter, the ABA said that “as currently conceived, the Registry will be of limited, if any, value to banks.” According to the Association “the proposal creates a framework in which banks’ access to the Registry will be so limited that it will effectively be useless, resulting in a dual reporting regime for both banks and small businesses,” and said there is no assurance that the information in the Registry will be accurate and reliable. Writing in FCPA Blog, Martin Kenney, a Brit, compares it to what he considers an equally useless registry in the UK, “a damning indictment,” in his estimation. He notes the inaccuracy of the UK-required information, and says that crooks fill it with fake and misleading information which renders the system useless “if you are looking to “out” a money-laundering oligarch.”