FinCEN reduced access to beneficial ownership information

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has limited access by federal agencies to the beneficial ownership information reported by companies under the Corporate Transparency Act amid lawsuits and changes in the rules, according to a new report.

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The report, released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, examined the status of the safeguards for providing access to the corporate ownership reports already filed by companies. The Treasury drastically limited the requirement at least for U.S.-based companies, by issuing an interim final rule in March of last year suspending enforcement, fines and penalties against domestic businesses.

The CTA was signed into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 and requires individuals with an ownership interest in a limited liability company to disclose personal data to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a way to deter illicit activity such as money laundering, tax fraud, drug trafficking and terrorism financing by anonymous shell companies. However, the requirement provoked a wave of lawsuits and court decisions, along with heavy industry opposition, including from the American Institute of CPAs, which has thrown its support behind legislation to limit the requirement only to foreign companies. Some groups, such as the National Federation of Independent Business, has sought to force FinCEN to delete the existing reports altogether.

However, federal law enforcement agencies have nevertheless been asking for the information, according to the new GAO report. In 2024, when the Treasury began requiring some companies to report owner identity information to FinCEN. The Treasury granted six law enforcement agencies access to the information. It also reviews requests for access from other agencies as needed. 

In early 2024, FinCEN began to securely collect, process, store and manage in its IT system beneficial ownership information submitted by companies. It also started to implement a five-phase program to allow authorized users — including federal agencies engaged in national security, intelligence or law enforcement — to ask for access to the system.

FinCEN completed its first phase  of a pilot program by granting six federal law enforcement agencies access to its IT system. However, agency searches fell sharply in October 2024 and generally remained low through March 2026, according to the report. 

“FinCEN attributed the decline to lawsuits, program changes, and its March 2025 interim final rule, which exempted about 99% of entities previously required to report their information,” said the report. “Three agencies also ended the pilot program.”

FinCEN paused accepting and processing access requests under a second phase in December 2024 due to ongoing lawsuits but resumed its efforts in spring 2025. As of August 2025, FinCEN was processing requests from 22 federal agencies but largely paused its efforts again in December 2025 while working to finalize the interim final rule. FinCEN also delayed the timeframes for implementing the remaining program phases.

In late 2024 and early 2025, lawsuits challenging the Corporate Transparency Act resulted in two district courts initially pausing the beneficial ownership reporting deadlines. In February 2025, FinCEN extended the reporting deadlines for most reporting companies because of the litigation. In March 2025, FinCEN issued an interim final rule that exempted all U.S. companies and U.S. persons from the beneficial ownership information reporting requirements.

The Treasury is developing additional oversight policies to protect the data from unauthorized use, and the GAO plans to continue monitoring efforts to share and protect this data under its recurring mandate. The CTA includes a provision for the GAO to determine how FinCEN is protecting access to and use of beneficial ownership information.