The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has imposed administrative sanctions on the Bidvest Bank Limited (Bidvest Bank) and HSBC.
The SARB announced on Friday, the 04th October 2024, that this action was as a result of non-compliance with the provisions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FIC Act), following a FIC Act inspection conducted in 2022.
Bidvest failed to implement a Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP) in relation to the assessed trade-based transactions in respect of a sample of clients assessed.
Bidvest Bank was fined about R5 million, of which R2.5 million is conditionally suspended for a period of 12 months, as from 23 August 2024.
HSBC was fined about R9.5 million, of which R4 million is conditionally suspended for a period of 36 months as from 10 June 2024.
HSBC failed to comply with its customer due diligence (CDD) obligations, in terms of sections 21(1) and/or 21A to 21H of the FIC Act. This pertains to failure to adequately conduct CDD on sampled active customer relationships, deficiencies in the identification and verification of the beneficial owners of clients.
SARB also said HSBC failed to comply with FIC Act Directive 5 of 2019, in that it failed to attend to automated transaction monitoring system (ATMS) alerts within the required 48-hour period.
HSBC also did not implement a Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP), that would effectively enable it to identify and verify beneficial owners of clients.