Under the Corporate Transparency Act, who can access beneficial ownership information?

In accordance with the Corporate Transparency Act, FinCEN may permit access to beneficial ownership information to: Federal agencies engaged in national security, intelligence, or law enforcement activity; State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies with court authorization; Officials at the Department of the Treasury; Foreign law enforcement agencies, judges, prosecutors, and other authorities that submit a request through a U.S. Federal agency to obtain beneficial ownership information for authorized activities related to national security, intelligence, and law enforcement; Financial institutions with customer due diligence requirements under applicable law (in order to facilitate compliance with those requirements); and Federal functional regulators or other appropriate regulatory agencies that supervise or assess financial institutions with access to beneficial ownership information (in order to supervise such financial institutions’ compliance with customer due diligence requirements). FinCEN published the rule that will govern access to and protection of beneficial ownership information on December 22, 2023. Beneficial ownership information reported to FinCEN is stored in a secure, non-public database using rigorous information security methods and controls typically used in the Federal government to protect non-classified yet sensitive information systems at the highest security level. FinCEN will continue to work closely with those authorized to access beneficial ownership information to ensure that they understand their roles and responsibilities in using the reported information only for authorized purposes and handling in a way that protects its security and confidentiality.