Financial Intelligence Centre Act

Piggy bank staring at a calculator
Eunice van Zyl

Financial Intelligence for your Business

/in /by

The Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Act, 1 of 2017 (“the Amendment Act”) was signed into law by the President and published on 2 May 2017. Some of its provisions came into effect on 13 June 2017 while the majority of the remaining provisions will come into effect on 2 October 2017.

Why was it necessary to amend the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (“FICA”)?

South Africa is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), an international body that develops and promotes measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other threats to the integrity of the international financial system. Read more

Fica money in water
Eunice van Zyl

Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill – Back to basics

/in , , /by

The Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill [B33-2015] was published for comment on 29 April 2015. The parliamentary process is complete and the Bill is now awaiting presidential assent. Little has been made of this Bill in the media, perhaps because the changes envisaged by the Bill has no apparent nor immediate impact on ordinary consumers.

For accountable institutions (identified in FICA), however, the Bill is a call to action. It is an opportunity for businesses to take ownership of their processes to combat money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Merely ticking the boxes will no longer suffice. Read more

German Federal Court of Justice establishes verification duty for online review portals

/in , , /by

On March 1, 2016 the German Federal Court of Justice ruled on the duty of an online review portal operator to verify reviews.

Risk Culture: More Work Needed from Boards in Financial Services

/in /by

Only 60% of chief risk officers (CROs) at global financial institutions say their boards have worked at embedding the organization’s risk culture across the enterprise, and about the same percentage say their boards have reviewed incentive compensation plans to consider alignment of risks with rewards, according to the ninth biennial “Global Financial Services Risk Management Survey” from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL).