The Prudential Authority of the South African Reserve Bank has imposed administrative penalties totalling R34 million on Capitec Bank and Ninety-One Assurance for breaches of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act. The action, announced on 12 September 2026, includes R28 million on Capitec and R6 million on Ninety-One Assurance.
A portion of each penalty has been conditionally suspended for 36 months, with R5.5 million suspended from the Capitec fine and R2.5 million suspended from the Ninety-One Assurance fine. The suspensions are conditional on the two institutions completing remedial action, according to information published on the Prudential Authority's administrative sanctions page.
CAPITEC FAILINGS
The Prudential Authority identified a range of failings at Capitec Bank, spanning inadequate customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, ongoing training, terrorist property reporting and sanctions and politically exposed persons screening controls. The breach categories cover most of the pillars of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism compliance.
The R28 million penalty places Capitec among the largest South African banks to receive a FICA-related sanction from the Prudential Authority in recent enforcement cycles. The bank has cooperated with the regulator and is taking remedial action, the Prudential Authority said in its notice.
The findings are the outcome of Prudential Authority inspections conducted in 2023, illustrating the length of time that supervisory processes can take to translate into published enforcement action. The remedial requirements attached to the suspended portion of the fine provide the regulator with leverage to ensure that the identified control deficiencies are addressed.
The spread of the identified failings across customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, ongoing training, terrorist property reporting and sanctions and PEP screening controls indicates that the shortcomings were not confined to a single process area. Remediation is therefore expected to touch multiple parts of Capitec's compliance framework.
NINETY-ONE ASSURANCE
The Prudential Authority's R6 million penalty on Ninety-One Assurance, of which R2.5 million is conditionally suspended for 36 months, reflects a separate set of FICA-related findings arising from the same 2023 inspection round. Ninety-One Assurance has also cooperated with the regulator and is undertaking remedial measures, according to the Prudential Authority.
The combined R34 million package underlines the Prudential Authority's continued focus on anti-money laundering controls across South African banks and long-term insurers, a supervisory priority that has intensified following the country's grey-listing by the Financial Action Task Force. The Prudential Authority publishes its administrative sanctions on the SARB website.
Both institutions are expected to complete remediation within the 36-month suspension period, at which point the suspended portions of the penalties will fall away if conditions are met. Failure to remediate could result in the suspended amounts becoming payable in addition to any further enforcement action.
The R28 million Capitec penalty and R6 million Ninety-One Assurance penalty, with R5.5 million and R2.5 million respectively conditionally suspended for 36 months, create a headline outcome that combines an immediate financial impact with a longer conditional element tied to remediation. That structure is a familiar tool in the Prudential Authority's kit, calibrating the immediate deterrent effect while creating a clear incentive to deliver the required improvements.