In terms of section 42(4) of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (“FICA”), an accountable institution is obliged, on request, to make a copy of the documentation describing its Risk Management and Compliance Programme (“RMCP”) available to the Financial Intelligence Centre (“FIC”) or a supervisory body which performs regulatory or supervisory functions in respect of that accountable institution.
Accountable institutions are defined in Schedule 1 to FICA, as amended, and include certain credit providers and dealers in high-value goods.
In terms of section 42(4) on 4 March 2025, the FIC has issued a request requiring all accountable institutions to submit their RMCPs to the FIC by Wednesday, 12 March 2025.
The RMCP should be saved in PDF format with the filename YYYYMMDD_RMCP.pdf, where YYYYMMDD reflects the date of approval of your latest RMCP and be uploaded onto the FIC’s GoAML platform.
Failure to comply with this request may result in administrative sanctions, including financial penalties not exceeding ZAR10 million in respect of natural persons and ZAR50 million in respect of any legal person.
This submission is a crucial step in maintaining compliance with South Africa’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and related activities framework. Institutions are advised to act promptly in meeting the deadline to avoid potential penalties.
ENS has developed a FICA toolkit, which includes an RMCP template, to assist clients in fast-tracking compliance.
For more information or to discuss how this development affects your business, please contact:
Era Gunning
Executive | Banking and Finance and Co-Head of Data Protection