Another international finance company hit with sanctions in South Africa
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has hit Access Forex with administrative sanctions for failure to abide by the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FIC Act).
The SARB has imposed administrative sanctions on Zimbabwe-based Access Forex, an Authorised Dealer in foreign exchange with limited authority (ADLA).
Based in Harare, Access Forex deals with the movement of money from South Africa, the UK and Zimbabwe.
The FIC Act gives the SARB the mandate to ensure that ADLAs have adequate controls in place to combat acts of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Due to these responsibilities, the SARB inspects ADLAs to assess whether they have appropriate measures, as FIC requires.
The SARB said that the administrative sanctions were imposed because of specific weaknesses that were detected in Access Forex’s control measures that inhibited it.
It also failed to reflect essential provisions of the FIC Act in its Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP) document.
The company also failed to verify and identify some of its customers and provide adequate training to its staff members.
With this, the SARB imposed the following administrative sanctions:
- A financial penalty of R100,000.00 for failure to comply with the provisions of section 42 (1) of the FIC Act;
- A financial penalty of R37,500 for failure to comply with the provisions of section 20; and
- A financial penalty of R25,000 for failure to comply with the provisions of section 43 of the FIC Act.
Joins a growing list
Sanctions have become common in South Africa over the last year, with the SARB and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority dishing out punishments to major banks and other financial institutions.
Earlier this week, Sanlam Collective Investments (SCI) was fined by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for breaching the FIC. This was due to multiple failures in its RMCP.
The FSCA recognised the remedial steps taken by SCI from a prior sanction, and agreed to suspend R3.6 million of the R10.6 million fine for two years.
Big banks have had a challenging year, with the Prudential Authority (PA) of the SARB placing fines on Capitec, Standard Bank, Absa and many more.
At the end of 2024, the PA imposed administrative sanctions on Capitec for multiple failures to comply with the FIC Act, following inspections in 2021 and 2022.
These failings led to administrative sanctions comprising seven cautions, one reprimand, and a financial penalty of R56.25 million, of which R10.5 million is conditionally suspended for three years.
Moreover, the PA also sanctioned Standard Bank for significant non-compliance with the FIC Act, which was identified during a 2022 inspection.
South Africa’s largest bank by assets under management failed to conduct ongoing due diligence on two major clients, with no reviews done in 2018 or 2019.
In response, the PA issued six cautions and levied a financial penalty of R13 million.
Absa was hit with a fine in April 2025 following an inspection in 2022 that found several breaches of the FIC Act.
The PA found deficiencies in Absa’s customer due diligence procedures, particularly regarding foreign and domestic politically exposed persons and prominent influential persons.
Absa was hit by two cautions, one reprimand, and a financial penalty of R10 million, split into R7 million for due diligence failures and R3 million for lapses in transaction monitoring.
Several other international banks, including HSBC, HBZ Bank Limited, Citibank and Bank of Taiwan, have also been given fines over the last year.
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