STANDARD BANK SLAPPED WITH R13M FINE

NON-COMPLIANCE: The bank failed to timeously report 17 259 suspicious transactions and unusual activity incidences

By   Liesl Peyper

Banking giant, Standard Bank, has been hit with a R13 million penalty by the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) due to non-compliance with certain provisions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica).

The Sarb announced the latest administrative sanctions on a major retail bank in a statement on its website late Friday afternoon.

The Prudential Authority, mandated to supervise and enforce compliance by South Africa’s financial institutions, notes the following instances of non-compliance by Standard Bank:

It failed to conduct ongoing due diligence in respect of two of its clients, with no due diligence reviews undertaken in 2018 and 2019;

It did not keep a record of the dates on which 43 suspicious and unusual transaction reports and unusual activity reports were submitted to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC);

It did not timeously report 1 466 cash transaction reports and or cash aggregation reports to the FIC, nor did the bank report 17 259 suspicious transactions and unusual activity incidences.

In addition, Standard Bank did not timeously attend to 75 729 automated transaction monitoring system alerts within 48 hours.

The bank also took longer than the 15-day reporting period for 94 558 suspicious transactions and unusual activity.

The Prudential Authority notes that Standard Bank cooperated and has undertaken to take the necessary remedial action to address the compliance deficiencies and control weaknesses.

The move to sanction Standard Bank is the latest in a series of administrative sanctions imposed on South Africa’s financial institutions. At the end of December a R56 million fine was imposed on Capitec Bank. The Prudential Authority also imposed considerable fines on Old Mutual, Bidvest Bank and HSBC for non-compliance with Fica.

On  January 16 this year, the authority also applied to the High Court for the provisional liquidation of KZN-headquartered Ithala.

This development finance institution operated as a bank until its licence was revoked in August last year.