News

Dozens of U.S. financial institutions have petitioned the Treasury Department to exempt existing, legal-entity clients from having to disclose their beneficial owners each time they open a new account. Since May 11, the department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, has required U.S. banks, brokerages and other financial institutions to collect and verify the personal information of any individual who owns at least 25 percent of a legal entity who opens an account from that date forward. Legal-entity clients must also confirm that their ownership data is still accurate whenever they open additional accounts, which “creates unnecessary burden and an...