Banking

Standard Bank hit with sanctions

The Prudential Authority imposed administrative sanctions on Standard Bank for failure to comply with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FIC Act).

The Prudential Authority is mandated to supervise and enforce compliance by accountable institutions and operates within the administration of the SA Reserve Bank.

On 24 January 2025, the Reserve Bank released a statement regarding the Prudential Authority’s sanctions on Standard Bank.

The sanctions were imposed because Standard Bank did not comply with certain Financial Intelligence Centre Act provisions.

This was discovered after the Prudential Authority inspected Standard Bank in 2022 and discovered non-compliance.

The administrative sanctions imposed on the bank consist of six cautions not to repeat the conduct that led to non-compliance and a financial penalty of R13 million.

  • It failed to conduct ongoing due diligence on two of its clients, with no due diligence reviews undertaken in 2018 and 2019.
  • It failed to keep a record of the dates on which 43 suspicious and unusual transaction reports or suspicious and unusual activity reports were submitted to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).
  • It failed to timeously report 1,466 cash transaction reports and/or cash transaction aggregation reports to the FIC. 
  • It failed to timeously report 17,259 suspicious and unusual transaction reports or suspicious and unusual activity reports to the FIC.
  • It failed to report one suspicious and unusual transaction report to the FIC.
  • It failed to comply with the FIC Act Directive in that 5,729 automated transaction monitoring system alerts were not timely attended to within 48 hours, and 94,558 STR/SAR alerts were closed beyond the 15-day reporting period.

The Prudential Authority said Standard Bank cooperated with it and has undertaken the necessary remedial action to address the identified compliance deficiencies.

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