The following statement can be attributed to Chris Mohr, President, Software & Information Industry Association.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is proud to support Senator Steve Daines' (R-MT) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) permitting financial institutions' service providers to access and custody beneficial ownership information (BOI) data. This common sense fix helps alleviate the burden on financial institutions to comply with key anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing requirements.

The amendment would permit these financial institutions' service providers to apply to FinCEN and receive a license to obtain and analyze BOI. BOI is a critical piece of information used to uncover and screen against the often complex structures that aid money laundering efforts, drug traffickers, terrorist financiers, and other illicit actors. Unfortunately, financial institutions are often unable to fully incorporate and analyze this data on their own.

By permitting service providers with demonstrated expertise to access this information, the amendment enables critical US national security interests and alleviates compliance burdens on domestic small businesses.

SIIA looks forward to working with Congress to advance this legislation.