ALTA Supports Federal Anti-Money Laundering Bill

May 8, 2019

ALTA joined several other trade groups in a letter to the House Financial Services and Senate Banking leadership urging passage of the Corporate Transparency Act (HR 2513).

The bill would update anti-money laundering laws and establish a national strategy to protect real estate from money launders. A requirement for companies to report their beneficial ownership will help law enforcement identify and combat the use of real estate in money laundering. This is integral for efforts to modernize the United States anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.

States do not require companies to disclose their beneficial owners at the time of creation. This reduces the value of financial intelligence provided by banks, title insurance companies and other financial institutions under their AML and geographic targeting order obligations. A single national repository, operated by law enforcement, would ensure FinCEN obtains valuable information about anonymous shell companies from the sources with the best knowledge.

ALTA believes Congress should include a corporate beneficial ownership registry at a federal or state level to help law enforcement combat the abuse of LLCs to hide beneficial ownership in real estate transactions. The Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 would create this repository at FinCEN to collect and record a corporation or LLC’s beneficial ownership information. The information would be available through appropriate protocols, only to law enforcement, financial intelligence agencies and financial institutions with the consent of their customer. This system would provide law enforcement with a valuable tool for combating money laundering in real estate, without creating new compliance burdens for industry stakeholders.


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.