FinCEN to Ease Beneficial Ownership Checks for Business Accounts in Exceptive Order FIN-2026-R001

The Order

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network plans to issue an exceptive relief order on Feb. 13, 2026, that will let covered financial institutions stop re-collecting and re-verifying beneficial ownership information every time an existing legal-entity customer opens a new account, according to two Treasury officials familiar with the rulemaking. The order, labeled FIN-2026-R001, will limit beneficial ownership identification and verification under 31 C.F.R. Section 1010.230(b) to three situations: when a legal entity first opens an account, when the institution learns facts that call prior data into question, and when risk-based ongoing due diligence requires an update.

One of the officials said the order will take effect the same day it is signed and will apply to banks, savings associations, credit unions, securities brokers and dealers, mutual funds, futures commission merchants, and introducing brokers in commodities. The change does not alter any other Bank Secrecy Act or anti-money laundering program requirements, and institutions may still collect ownership data at each new account if they choose, the official said. The stated purpose is to reduce redundant paperwork while keeping foundational controls in place, an approach FinCEN has telegraphed in recent months as part of a broader Treasury effort to modernize financial surveillance.

The original Customer Due Diligence Rule was finalized in 2016 and took effect in May 2018. It requires covered institutions to identify and verify the beneficial owners of legal entity customers who own 25 percent or more of the equity interest or exercise significant control. For the past seven years, many compliance departments have read the rule to mean that each new account triggers a fresh collection of the beneficial ownership certification form, even when the customer has dozens of accounts at the same bank. The new exceptive relief is designed to end that practice, a second Treasury official said.

Industry Reaction and Scope

A bank compliance officer familiar with the rulemaking said the relief is expected to cut compliance costs for institutions that process thousands of account openings each quarter for corporate clients, law firms, real estate ventures, and nonprofit affiliates. Under the current Customer Due Diligence Rule, which took effect in 2018, many banks have treated each new account for an existing business customer as a fresh trigger for collecting ownership forms, certifying identities, and running verification checks. The new order effectively tells banks they may rely on information already in the file unless something changes.

A lobbyist briefed on the draft said the banking trade associations pressed FinCEN to make the relief optional rather than mandatory, worried that a hard exemption could draw criticism from lawmakers focused on shell companies and illicit finance. The lobbyist said the final language preserves the requirement that beneficial ownership data be gathered at the first account opening and updated when an institution knows of a change, which should blunt concerns that the change opens a loophole. The order also does not affect the Corporate Transparency Act's beneficial ownership reporting regime handled by FinCEN's separate reporting company database, the lobbyist noted.

The relief arrives as stablecoin issuers and crypto broker-dealers face tightening federal AML and sanctions expectations under the GENIUS Act, which President Trump signed in July 2025. By reducing repetitive ownership checks for traditional business accounts, FinCEN is signaling it wants banks to redirect compliance resources toward higher-risk areas, including digital asset flows and sanctions evasion, according to a senior Treasury official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The official pointed to FinCEN Advisory FIN-2025-A003, published Aug. 28, 2025, on Chinese money laundering networks used by Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations as the kind of threat the agency wants banks to prioritize.

One Treasury official said FinCEN is also preparing to clarify how the relief interacts with the agency's ongoing Beneficial Ownership Information reporting system for corporations and limited liability companies. That system, launched in 2024, requires many businesses to report their owners directly to FinCEN, and banks have asked whether they can rely on the federal database as a substitute for collecting the same information from customers. Friday's order does not go that far, but officials said a follow-up notice of proposed rulemaking on CDD modernization is planned for later in the year.

What Comes Next

FinCEN will publish FIN-2026-R001 on its website on Feb. 13, and the agency is preparing a short fact sheet for bank examiners explaining how the relief interacts with existing CDD examination procedures, the two Treasury officials said. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union Administration are expected to issue parallel guidance to their supervised institutions within 72 hours, one official said. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve will likely send similar signals to their examiners within a week, the official added. Industry lawyers said state regulators will likely follow within two weeks.

The American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America plan to issue statements welcoming the change once the order is public, according to the lobbyist briefed on the draft. Larger banks are expected to update their onboarding workflows by March 1, while smaller institutions may wait for their primary regulator's exam manual revisions before adjusting procedures. The bank compliance officer said institutions should document their risk-based rationale for skipping repeat collection, because examiners will still expect to see a clear policy and evidence that beneficial ownership information is updated when red flags appear.

Watch for any congressional letter from Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee questioning whether the relief weakens enforcement against shell companies, and for FinCEN's next move on a broader AML/CFT framework reform package that officials have said could land before the end of the quarter. The senior Treasury official said the agency is also weighing whether to expand the exceptive relief to cover other repetitive customer identification steps, though no decision has been made. Any expansion would likely come only after FinCEN reviews public comment on the initial order, the official said.