On 19 December 2024, the National Treasury published the Draft General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill, 2024 (Draft Bill) for public comment.
The Draft Bill contemplates amendments to the Nonprofit Organisations Act, 1997, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001, the Financial Sector Regulation Act, 2017 and the Companies Act, 2008 (Companies Act). The proposed amendments aim to address the remaining deficiencies identified by the Financial Action Task Force mutual evaluation in 2021. They follow the enactment of the related General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act, 2022 which, among other amendments, introduced increased beneficial ownership and beneficial interest disclosure on companies.
Our previous articles on these amendments can be found here and here.
The Draft Bill proposes amendments to the Companies Act that:
- permit the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) to deregister a company for failing to submit the securities register or the register of beneficial interest in the prescribed format for one year or more;
- permit CIPC to impose an administrative fine for failure to comply with a compliance notice issued for failure to submit the securities register or the register of beneficial interest; and
- allow for the review of the aforementioned administrative fine by the Companies Tribunal.
The CIPC has previously published reminders regarding beneficial ownership and related filings and has introduced a hard stop restriction on its filing system in terms of which annual returns cannot be filed without first submitting or updating required beneficial ownership information. The proposed amendments, if enacted, would bolster the CIPC's powers to enforce the obligations on companies to submit required shareholding, beneficial ownership and beneficial interest information prescribed under the Companies Act.
The deadline for public comment on the Draft Bill is 6 February 2025. Access a copy of the Draft Bill here.
Irrespective of the Draft Bill, companies must ensure that their company registers are up to date with beneficial ownership and beneficial interest information (as relevant) and file the required information with the CIPC.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
