Discovery Bank has been sanctioned by the South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority (PA) over violations of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The PA is mandated to supervise and enforce compliance by accountable institutions with the provisions of the FIC Act, and with any order, determination or directive made in terms thereof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Authority, Discovery Bank failed to comply with provisions of the FIC Act relating to the reporting of suspicious and unusual transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It conducted inspections at the bank in 2021 and found that the bank failed to timeously report 24 of these transactions to the FIC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, the PA has imposed administrative sanctions on the bank, including four cautions not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance, as well as a R3 million penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of this, R1 million is suspended for 36 months, starting 9 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to its failure to report suspicious activity, the PA noted that Discovery Bank also failed to comply with provisions of the FIC that required the group to provide specific training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It noted that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A third violation of the FIC Act was identified related to technicalities in and around Discovery Bank’s Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The PA said that Discovery Bank has cooperated with the authority to undertake the remedial action required to address the identified compliance deficiencies and control weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discovery Bank is just the latest finance group to be hit with sanctions by the PA. Earlier on Friday, the authority also sanctioned the international remittance group, eZaga Remit (eZI Remit), for not having proper controls in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n