The Reserve Bank's Prudential Authority (PA) announced it has imposed administrative sanctions on Standard Bank of South Africa and fined it R13m for noncompliance with certain provisions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica).
“The administrative sanctions imposed ... consist of six cautions not to repeat the conduct which led to the noncompliance and a financial penalty totalling R13m,” the PA said on Friday.
The Prudential Authority is responsible for the regulation of banks and insurance companies. In one of the sanctions where the Standard Bank South Africa was fined R4m, the PA found that it had failed to timeously report 17,259 suspicious and unusual transaction reports and/or suspicious and unusual activity reports to the Financial Intelligence Centre.
The bank was also fined R1m for failing to report a suspicious and unusual transaction to the FIC. The bank was also fined R8m because 75,729 automated transaction monitoring system alerts were not timeously attended to within 48 hours; and 94,558 unusual transaction and/or unusual activity reportsalerts were closed beyond the 15-day reporting period in terms of Fica regulations.
“The PA confirms that Standard Bank South Africa co-operated and has undertaken the necessary remedial action to address the identified compliance deficiencies and control weaknesses,” the PA said.
Last week the regulator moved to liquidate the KwaZulu-Natal development finance agency, Ithala, saying it was insolvent and urgent action was needed to protect its more than 250,000 depositors.
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