The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), passed into law by Congress on January 1 as a component of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDDA) for Fiscal Year 2021, marks the first significant update to U.S. anti-money laundering laws in 20 years.

The purpose of the CTA is to crack down on the anonymous shell companies used by a variety of “bad actors” to hide and move funds associated with corrupt and illicit activity. The CTA will create a beneficial ownership registry within the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). This registry will eventually contain information submitted by potentially millions of “reporting companies” that will be required to provide details of their beneficial owners to FinCEN.