A month after the enactment of the landmark Corporate Transparency Act, a new administration is opening new opportunities to advance the fight against corruption and illicit finance.
Anonymous shell companies in the US will soon be extinct. After more than a decade of debate, the House and Senate have both passed the Corporate Transparency Act as part of the recently enacted bipartisan, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA, H.R. 6395).
More than a decade after FACT Coalition member organizations began working to end anonymous companies, Congress is nearing the finish line to finally pass a bill that could do just that.
2020 is turning out to be an eventful year in the fight against corrupt financial practices.
As August recess wraps up, the prospect for action on beneficial ownership is becoming more likely. In June the Corporate Transparency Act (H.R. 2513) passed out of the House Financial Services Committee by a bipartisan vote of 43-16. It’s sister bill (S.1978) was introduced in the Senate. Two beneficial ownership transparency bills, the TITLE Act (S.1889) and a discussion draft of the ILLICIT CASH Act, have been the subject of hearings. FACT’s Executive Director Gary Kalman testified before the Senate Banking Committee in June to address, among other issues, the impact of legislation on small business. He noted that “more than three quarters of small business owners felt the tradeoff — reporting burden vs. the prevention of unfair competition from anonymous shell companies — was worth it.”
The Corporate Transparency Act (H.R. 2513), a bill to end the abuses of anonymous companies, went before the House Financial Services Committee for markup on June 11th. FACT voiced its support for the bill in a letter to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security earlier this year. Over 100 other organizations signed a letter in support of the bill, more than double the number that sent a similar letter last year. In addition to the broad support collected of a decade, new letters came from the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), the Anti-Insurance Fraud Coalition, the American Land Title Association, over 60 national security experts and others.
