By Claire White, Deposit Services Officer

On July 11th 2016, new FinCEN rules clarifying and strengthening customer due diligence requirements went into effect. Credit unions will have until May 11, 2018 to comply with the rules.

The new rules contain explicit customer due diligence requirements and include a new requirement to verify the identity of beneficial owners of legal entity customers (i.e. business entity members) with certain exclusions and exceptions.

Under the new rules, credit unions will use Customer Identification Program (CIP) procedures, similar to those used for individuals, to identify the beneficial owners of a legal entity. The credit union may rely on copies of the identification documents used to identify the beneficial owner and may rely on information provided by the entity, as long as it has no knowledge of facts that would call into question the reliability of the information.

Legal entity customers are defined in the final rules as a corporation, limited liability company, or other entity that is created by the filing of a public document with a Secretary of State or similar office, a general partnership, and any similar entity formed under the laws of a foreign jurisdiction that opens an account. Sole proprietorships and unincorporated associations are not included in the definition, even if those such businesses may file with the Secretary of State in order to, for example, register a trade name or establish a tax account.

The final rules also include a list of entities that are not included as legal entity customers under the rules. The exclusions begin on page 17 of the link included in this article.

The final rules define beneficial owners as each of the following:

  • Each individual who, directly or indirectly, through any contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship or otherwise, owns 25% or more of the equity interests of a legal entity customer; and
  • A single individual with significant responsibility to control, manage, or direct a legal entity customer, including an executive officer or senior manager (e.g. a CEO, CFO, COO, Managing Member, General Partner, President, Vice President, or Treasurer) or any other individual who regularly performs similar functions.
  • If a trust owns directly or indirectly, through any contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship or otherwise, 25% or more of the equity interests of a legal entity customer, the beneficial owner(s) for the purpose of the final rules is the trustee.

CU Business Group recommends credit unions review their Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) procedures and other procedures related to the opening and monitoring of business accounts to ensure compliance with the new Customer Due Diligence (CDD) rules before May 11, 2018.

We have created the following list of action steps to help you get started:

  1. Review your current account opening, monitoring, and any related BSA procedures for business accounts.
  2. Update the procedures if necessary.
  3. Contact your form vendor regarding a Certification of Beneficial Owner(s) or use the form provided in Appendix A of the Customer Due Diligence Requirements at account opening or when significant changes occur.
  4. Determine which areas of operations will be affected by the changes and provide training to staff.
  5. Inform internal and external auditors of the changes.

You can view the final rules on Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions online.

If you have questions about FinCEN’s final rules on CDD for legal entity customers, contact CUBG’s deposit team at 866-484-2876, or TreasuryMgmt@cubg.org.