US Domestic — 2026-08-13

Treasury Finalizes Rollback of Corporate Transparency Act Exempting US Companies From Beneficial Ownership Reporting

BLUFEliminating the beneficial ownership registry restores the structural opacity that made U.S. shell companies a preferred vehicle for money laundering, sanctions evasion, and fraud.

FinCEN issued a final rule on Wednesday permanently ending the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information under the Corporate Transparency Act, effective on publication in the Federal Register 12. The rule makes permanent the exemptions Treasury adopted in an interim final rule in March 2025, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it "a victory for common sense and American small businesses" 1. Foreign entities that are reporting companies must still disclose beneficial ownership information for foreign individuals, but foreign companies are no longer required to report U.S. persons who assist them as company applicants, and foreign pooled investment vehicles registered in the U.S. are exempt from reporting a U.S. person's control interest 1. FinCEN also said it will delete beneficial ownership information previously submitted by U.S. persons, including data FinCEN believes is linked to a U.S. passport or driver's license, from its database 13.

Analysis
FinCEN's rule permanently confines federal beneficial-ownership disclosure to foreign-controlled entities, stripping banks and Treasury's own investigators of the domestic shell-company registry anti-money-laundering and sanctions enforcement had begun to rely on. Ordered deletion of previously filed U.S. person data forecloses retrospective use even if illicit activity later surfaces, pushing detection burden onto uneven state corporate records and bank due diligence. Sourcing rests on a single Treasury/FinCEN release republished by the issuing agencies, with OCCRP and ABA Banking Journal offering secondary summary rather than independent confirmation. Treasury frames the rule as small-business relief, but it can equally be read as deliberately reopening the shell-company loophole the 2020 Corporate Transparency Act was built to close.

4 sources

FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business Owners - U.S. Department of the Treasury
FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business Owners
Treasury Rolls Back Ownership Reporting Obligations for U.S. Companies - OCCRP
FinCEN finalizes rule ending beneficial reporting for U.S. businesses - ABA Banking Journal