Another finance company hit with sanctions in South Africa
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has imposed administrative sanctions on eZaga Remit (Pty) Limited for breaking the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Act.
eZaga Remit, which actually changed its name to eZI Remit, provides for the international remittance, which is the transfer of funds from one country to another
The Sunninghill-based company said that the service enables individuals to send money to their home countries and for cross-border transactions for businesses that operate globally.
The SARB noted that eZaga is an authorised dealer in foreign exchange with limited authority (ADLA).
ADLAs are persons authorised by the SARB to deal in foreign exchange transactions and are subject to regulation.
ADLAs include bureaux de change and are authorised to deal only in certain Limited, designated foreign exchange transactions, including travel-related transactions.
The FIC Act mandates that SARB ensure that ADLAs have adequate controls in place to combat acts of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
From these responsibilities, the SARB inspects ADLAs to assess whether they have appropriate measures in place as required by law.
The SARB stated that the administrative sanction was imposed due to specific weaknesses detected in the ADLA’s control measures.
These weaknesses included limited training provided to its staff members.
However, the company got off relatively lightly and received only a caution not to repeat the conduct which led to the non-compliance.
Several other institutions have received monetary penalties for contravening the FIC Act, including Capitec, Absa, Standard Bank, Sanlam and several international banks.
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