Fight money laundering without punishing small businesses and homebuyers
The American Land Title Association (ALTA) warns that FinCEN's residential real estate reporting rule, intended to combat money laundering, is disproportionately burdening small title companies and homebuyers. Many transactions are being delayed, and consumers are raising privacy concerns, while small businesses face new compliance costs. ALTA urges FinCEN to revise the rule to focus on high-value transactions and reduce unnecessary data collection.
- ▪The FinCEN rule requires reporting on residential real estate transactions to combat money laundering, but 66% of surveyed title professionals reported transaction delays.
- ▪85% of respondents said buyers or sellers expressed privacy or data security concerns related to the rule.
- ▪ALTA recommends narrowing the rule to higher-value transactions and eliminating requests for seller financial and tax data.
- ▪More than half of surveyed title companies had to dedicate staff to comply with the reporting requirements.
- ▪A federal court paused the rule on March 19, giving FinCEN until May 18 to decide on an appeal.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
With National Small Business Week underway, Washington has a timely opportunity to show it understands what small businesses actually need. Too often, policymakers say they support Main Street while overlooking what new compliance demands look like for the local companies serving their communities. The American Land Title Association represents an industry in which 90% of companies are small businesses. These are local title and settlement companies serving homebuyers in every corner of the country. They help families buy homes, protect property rights, and stop fraud before it spreads. They are not giant compliance shops with legal departments and spare staff. They are Main Street businesses.
…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Washington Examiner.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from Washington Examiner
