Tag: RiskManagement

When organisations conduct due diligence on a new customer, supplier or business partner, they often feel reassured once they verify the basics. The company registration checks out, the directors are identified, and the necessary documentation has been collected. The onboarding process then moves forward with confidence.

South Africa completed its Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan and left the grey list in October 2025. The more telling test now is whether the systems built under pressure remain effective when no deadline forces the issue. For businesses, that makes compliance less of a regulatory exercise. Instead, it forms part of the infrastructure required to grow with confidence.

Commercial vessel operators today face a demanding operating environment. Rising repair costs, ageing fleets, increasingly unpredictable weather and tighter regulatory requirements all contribute to higher operating costs and more complex marine risks. These challenges often intensify for South African operators.

For buyers and sellers, closing a Merger and Acquisition (M&A) transaction can feel like the finish line. However, when Representations and Warranties (W&I) insurance forms part of the transaction, the real test of that protection may only come after the deal has closed. Our 2026 Transaction Solutions Global Claims Study points to a significant evolution in the W&I claims environment.

Compliance has traditionally been associated with paperwork, manual checks and the challenge of proving that the right processes were followed. However, regulatory scrutiny continues to increase. Accountable institutions also face greater expectations around customer due diligence. This raises a more practical question: how can compliance become easier to manage, evidence, and maintain?

South Africa’s agricultural sector is under growing pressure to produce more food with fewer resources. Rising input costs, infrastructure strain, and climate volatility are reshaping the risk commercial farming landscape. Margins continue to tighten. As operational buffers shrink, farming businesses are becoming increasingly exposed to production, financial and market vulnerabilities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer something financial institutions are preparing for. It is already embedded in how decisions are made, how products are designed and how risk is managed. Whether through fraud detection, algorithmic trading, customer engagement or compliance monitoring, AI is steadily reshaping the financial services sector.

South Africa has been fighting corruption with legislation that, frankly, lacked teeth. The Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004 (PRECCA) has long been the cornerstone of the country's anti-corruption framework - criminalising bribery, fraud and a broad range of corrupt conduct in both the public and private sectors. The law was there. The convictions, historically, were not. That is rapidly changing.

Recent severe weather events across South Africa have once again highlighted the agricultural sector's growing exposure to climate-related risks. While hail has historically been one of the most visible threats, farmers increasingly face a combination of hazards. These include strong winds, heavy rainfall, localised flooding and unseasonal weather patterns. Often, these hazards occur within the same production cycle.

Attackers aren’t breaking in; they’re being invited, and the invitations are being written by the business. The easiest way to install malware on a business network is to persuade someone inside the business to do it. Attackers don’t always need to bypass the firewall or exploit a zero-day vulnerability. Sometimes, all it takes is a convincing email, a moment of misplaced confidence and trust.