Although, as far as I am aware, the concepts behind ‘anti-money laundering’ and the ‘beneficial owner’ (‘BO’) originated in the US, that country does not implement the rules drawn up by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In the US, the rules on the registration of BOs were already quite different from those we have in the EU. The difference has recently become even greater, as now only foreign BOs belonging to foreign companies need to be registered.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US announced:

FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business Owners

On this page the background of the decision is explained by FinCEN.

The reaction from organisations marketing BO-registration, like Transparency International and FACT Coalition, was predictable. Reuters quotes a representative of the FACT Coalition saying the new rule is “hand[ing] a major victory to U.S. adversaries, corrupt officials, fraudsters, and tax evaders who use our financial system to move and hide illicit wealth”. In this article the authors comment that a future administration could just as quickly reinstate BO reporting obligations for domestic companies and U.S. persons.