Will you begin to require proof of registration/requesting permission to pull their registration?

If a business is not registered, will you refuse to open the account?

My fear is examiners will treat this similar to MSB registration. I also don't see any means of effective enforcement outside of us financial institutions through our due diligence. Am I thinking too deep about this?

I think you are right to keep it on your radar, but I was on a discussion yesterday which I agree with. We do not have enough information about what will be required from us to access the BOSS system. If not registered, I would think that would be a bank risk call because we may still be collecting the information as we do today unless something changes. I am of the opinion that hopefully some of the questions still outstanding will be answered.

We are business as usual until we hear otherwise.

I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I'm a bit frustrated with FinCEN as it doesn't appear they are communicating with business organizations (i.e. Secretary of State, trade organizations, etc) very well. Most of the state secretary of state websites I've looked at recently do not have any information about the new BOI rules effective in 2 weeks. Also, does anyone have a general idea when the 2nd part of this regulation will be finalized (i.e. the access rule)? Unless I missed it, I don't believe this has been finalized.

Since the database is not even going to be available until probably sometime in 2025, I would not be holding my breath. As it currently stands, financial institutions have absolutely no dog in this hunt, so I am not sure why there is any frustration involved.

My husband received an email from the MN Secretary of State's Office yesterday regarding this (he has a small business registered to do business in MN). It was a very good email I thought!

100% agree. Financial institutions have plenty of other actual stuff to worry about without worrying about a rule that currently has no applicability to them whatsoever. To answer jonv's question, not only has the FinCEN change to the BOI rule for FI's not been finalized, it hasn't even been proposed yet.

My only frustration is with vendors offering FI's seminars to tell them "what you need to know' about the new rule at a couple hundred dollars a pop. Everything an FI needs to know right now is in Randy's post two above this one!

John Burnett will have a session on this topic at the 2024 BSA/AML Top Gun Conference

If FinCEN provides any additional information between now and March, we'll be sure to include it in the conference.

I did a webinar with my states community bankers association yesterday, Deb Crawford was the speaker. (One of the speakers you have for the 2024 BSA/AML Top Gun Conference) She went thru some of the Small Entity Compliance Guide. I found it helpful in the event we have questions, because you know we will. I can trust when I tell customers to refer to it. I printed out the pamphlet provided by FinCEN to have a few on hand at our branches, should someone ask. Giving a courtesy heads up, but not holding any hands. I let the board know, just in case they get questions.

I think the reason we have so many concerned on what they are supposed to do, is because you know we are the ones who are going to get all the questions from customers.

Yup, and your response is that they should be seeking guidance from their own legal counsel or other professional or provide them the FinCEN website, as the bank really is not involved in any of this. You do not want, under any circumstances, for your employee to be dispensing information that could be construed as legal advice. I would advise that bank employees should not be answering any questions on the matter beyond those referrals.

I am not even sure how a bank will be able to navigate all of the 23 exceptions to give proper advice to give customers advice.

A bank must get authorization from the client prior to accessing the system for review of their filing. It will take a lot of legal review and disclosure prior to using the system.

I would however not worry about this until the system is up and running and we get clear guidance from regulators and their expectations.

Well, I guess there's a first time for everything.

Apparently there will be a "Youtube briefing" on access tomorrow, which does seem relevant to FIs. I wish they'd just publish the reg first.

https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-re...ficial-ownership-information-access-rule

https://www.fincen.gov/sites/defaul...nce_of_the_Access_Rule_12.15.2023.v2.pdf

The Access Rule does not create a new regulatory requirement for banks to access BOI from the BO IT System or a supervisory expectation that they do so. Therefore, the Access Rule does not necessitate changes to Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) compliance programs designed to comply with the existing Customer Due Diligence rule (the “current CDD Rule”) and other existing BSA requirements, such as customer identification program requirements and suspicious activity reporting. However, any access to and use of BOI obtained from the BO IT System must comply with the requirements of the CTA and the Access Rule.

does anyone know if the consent needed by a reporting company is an actual document FINCEN or other like entity created for the purpose of providing consent or will banks create their own consent forms?

Do not count on FinCEN giving you any help in developing the consent forms.

1. Change Customer Consent Requirement

FinCEN considered altering the customer consent requirement for financial institutions. Under the final rule, financial institutions are required to obtain and document customer consent once for a given customer. FinCEN considered an alternative approach in which FinCEN would directly obtain the reporting company's consent. Under this scenario, financial institutions would not need to spend time and resources on drafting or modifying customer consent forms, ensuring legal compliance, and testing the forms.

Using an hourly wage estimate of $106 per hour for financial institutions, FinCEN estimates this would result in a savings per financial institution of approximately $5,300 to $7,420 in year 1 and $1,060 to $2,120 in subsequent years. FinCEN estimates an aggregate savings of $83.3 to $116.6 million in year 1 and $16.7 to $33.3 million in subsequent years. To estimate the potential range of aggregate savings under this scenario, FinCEN multiplies the respective estimates of yearly savings by the number of financial institutions (e.g., $7,420 per institution × 15,716 financial institutions = $116,612,720, to estimate the upper bound). The cost savings for small financial institutions under this scenario would be approximately $72.6 million ($5,300 per institution × 13,699 small financial institutions = $72,604,700), assuming the lower bound of the estimated time burden applies. Though this alternative results in a savings to financial institutions, including small entities, FinCEN believes that financial institutions are better positioned to obtain consent—and to track consent revocation—given their direct customer relationships and ability to leverage existing onboarding and account maintenance processes, as also discussed in sections III.E.ii.d and V.A.i.a above. Therefore, FinCEN decided not to adopt this alternative.