August 5, 2016
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has imposed administrative sanctions on five banks and directed them to take remedial actions. This was after it conducted routine inspections in terms of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FIC Act) and found weaknesses in each of the banks’ control measures. The five banks are GBS Mutual Bank, Habib Overseas Bank Limited, Investec Bank Limited, The South African Bank of Athens Limited, and Standard Chartered Bank – Johannesburg Branch.
The inspections were conducted in terms of the FIC Act which mandates the SARB to ensure that banks have adequate controls in place to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Flowing from these responsibilities, the SARB inspects banks to assess whether they have appropriate measures in place as required by the FIC Act. The administrative sanctions were not imposed because these banks were found to have facilitated transactions involving money laundering or the financing of terrorism but because of weaknesses in each of the banks’ control measures.