Christopher Malan | Head | Compliance and Prevention | Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) | mail me |
New designated items listed as accountable institutions in Schedule 1 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) are urged to continue registering with the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) even after the deadline of close of business on Monday, 20 March 2023, to avoid being in non-compliance with the registration requirements.
It is vital for the new accountable institutions to understand their obligations in terms of the FICA. This starts by being registered with the FIC. By registering the business community is playing its part in contributing to addressing a strategic deficiency identified by the Financial Action Task Force grey list process.
The inclusion of new designated items
The FIC has seen a low uptake in registration from new accountable institutions since amendments to the Schedule items in the FICA came into effect on 19 December 2022. (See media release for more information).
The new sectors must register with the FIC as accountable institutions within 90 days after the amended Schedule 1 entered into force.
The amendments saw the inclusion of new designated items in Schedule 1 consisting of 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, informal money or value transfer providers (including hawaladars), and payment clearing system participants. All sectors that fall under these items are required to register with the FIC.
In addition to registering with the FIC, accountable institutions must fulfil certain regulatory obligations. These include implementing customer identification and verification, customer due diligence, appointing a compliance officer, training employees on FICA compliance and money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing (ML/TF/PF) risk exposure, undertaking business risk assessments for ML/TF/PF, and maintaining and implementing a risk management and compliance programme.
Regulatory reports
Accountable institutions must also file regulatory reports relating to suspicious and unusual transactions, cash transactions exceeding the prescribed threshold and on property that is linked to sanctioned persons, terrorist activity or terrorist organisations.
We urge accountable institutions to make use of the 90-day window period to register with the FIC, so that these institutions meet their FICA obligations.
We strongly encourage the various new accountable institutions around the country which have not yet done so, to immediately register on the FIC’s online registration portal. Registering with the FIC is an important first step for accountable institutions to fulfil their risk and compliance obligations and play their part in combating financial crime.
Accountable institutions are reminded that the failure to register with the FIC or to update registration information when it has changed constitutes non-compliance in terms of section 61A of the FICA.
In conclusion
Supervisors may impose administrative sanctions for the non-compliance with the registration requirement, which may include a financial penalty not exceeding R10 million in respect of natural persons and R50 million in respect of any legal person.
Registrations must be completed and submitted to the FIC electronically within the prescribed period using the online registration system called goAML. Accountable institutions are encouraged to immediately register as registration with the FIC is free.
For more information and guidance refer to the FIC website, for various guidance notes and public compliance communications.
