Minister Godongwana signs the Financial Intelligence Centre Act

CO-OPERATIVE banks, company service providers, a wider category of credit providers, high-value goods dealers, the South African Mint Company, crypto asset service providers (CASPs) informal money or value transfer providers and payment clearing service operators will soon be included in Schedule 1 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FIC Act).

This after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana yesterday amended the Schedules in the FIC Act in an effort to enhance anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism and countering proliferation financing supervision and monitoring, which comes into effect from December 19.

The FIC said yesterday in a statement that in the first 18 months from the date of commencement of the amendments, the FIC and supervisory bodies would focus on entrenching the FIC Act risk and compliance provisions and implementation among the new sectors in Schedule 1 to the FIC Act.

“Supervisory bodies will conduct inspections and, where warranted, issue remedial administrative sanctions, based on a risk-based approach, to correct identified areas of non-compliance. In respect of the new sectors, the FIC and supervisory bodies do not envisage issuing financial penalties for non-compliance with the FIC Act during the transitional 18-month period,” it said. The move also comes as South Africa scrambles to tighten up its financial legislation after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published its Report on South African Anti-money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Measures.

In October 2021, which concluded that South Africa was only partially compliant with 17 of the FATF technical Recommendations and totally non-compliant with three of them, it was putting into doubt the country’s ability to ensure safeguards in accordance with international standards.