Treasury Department Provides Additional Information & Requests Feedback on CFIUS Known Investor Program Framework

On February 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), issued a long-awaited Request for Information (RFI) pertaining to the planned Known Investor Program aimed at facilitating reviews by CFIUS of investments by certain foreign or foreign-controlled entities (foreign investors) in U.S. businesses.

The Known Investor Program, the announcement of which we earlier wrote about, is intended to allow certain foreign investors to submit information to CFIUS (that typically would be gathered during a CFIUS investment review) in advance of a formal filing. Advance submission of the information will help CFIUS to process filings from such investors more quickly once they are received and may, in many cases, reduce the need for CFIUS to proceed to additional review periods, saving parties both time and money. Through the RFI, Treasury is seeking input from interested parties on issues it is still grappling with as it formulates the details of the Known Investor Program.

The RFI first describes 15 criteria that CFIUS anticipates using to determine whether a given entity is eligible to participate as a foreign investor in the Known Investor Program. Criteria generally focus on a party’s foreign status, recent prior interactions with CFIUS, relationships with select U.S. adversaries (China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela), and business conducted with parties on certain U.S. sanctions and export control lists. CFIUS particularly scrutinizes: foreign entities’ ownership by U.S. adversary governments, companies, or individuals; rights held by U.S. adversary governments, companies, or individuals; whether board members and officers are located in U.S. adversary countries; and whether the foreign entity has a certain amount of its manufacturing or research and development facilities in U.S. adversary countries. Meeting the criteria is a threshold matter before an entity may submit information under the Program. The RFI then describes categories of information that CFIUS anticipates requesting from eligible participants. As previewed in the RFI, CFIUS will provide a questionnaire for eligible foreign investors to complete in order to apply to become a “known investor” under the program. According to the RFI, CFIUS developed the eligibility criteria and questionnaire in consultation with foreign investors who are among the most frequent repeat filers with CFIUS.

The RFI offers foreign investors who have not already been consulted by CFIUS regarding the development of the Known Investor Program an opportunity to provide input, both by responding to 45 specific questions posed in the RFI as well as by providing additional information that might guide CFIUS in developing the program.

The 45 specific questions posed in the RFI seek comments on whether the proposed program participant eligibility criteria should be amended or supplemented, whether the questions in the planned questionnaire should be clarified or adjusted, whether any additional categories of information should be considered, what challenges may arise in the process of collecting and providing the information requested in the questionnaire, which items may be the most time- and resource-intensive to address, and how frequently participants should be expected to update their questionnaire responses.

Other feedback foreign investors are invited to provide includes: ways CFIUS can better communicate with parties during CFIUS reviews; ways CFIUS can increase transparency; and ways CFIUS can improve efficiency in its case review process in general, as well as regarding non-notified transactions, mitigation, and monitoring and enforcement. Foreign investors are “encouraged to share lessons and experiences from other regulatory regimes—whether domestic or foreign—with respect to features that CFIUS should consider.”

Foreign investors who wish to respond to the RFI need not respond to every question; comments may provide as much or as little information as the investor would like. All written comments are due March 18, 2026.

Please contact any author of this Advisory or your Arnold & Porter relationship attorney if you might be interested in submitting comments in response to the RFI or have any questions about it or related matters.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2026 All Rights Reserved. This Advisory is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.