The Prudential Authority of the South African Reserve Bank imposed an administrative penalty of R13 million on The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited on 24 January 2025 for six separate violations of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, following a compliance inspection conducted in 2022. The sanction covers a range of failures spanning customer due diligence, record-keeping, and the timely reporting and review of suspicious and cash transactions.
The Prudential Authority confirmed that Standard Bank cooperated fully with the investigation and has since implemented the remedial actions required to address the identified deficiencies. The bank's cooperation and its subsequent corrective measures were taken into account when the authority determined the quantum of the penalty, and six cautions were issued alongside the R13 million penalty.
SIX VIOLATIONS AND THEIR PENALTIES
Standard Bank failed to conduct ongoing customer due diligence on two clients and failed to record the submission dates of 43 suspicious transaction reports and suspicious activity reports; each of these drew a caution rather than a fine. A third violation—failure to report 1,466 cash transaction reports within the required timeframe—drew a further caution.
A R4 million penalty related to the failure to submit 17,259 suspicious transaction reports and suspicious activity reports in a timely manner. A separate R1 million fine was imposed for the outright failure to file one suspicious transaction report that should have been reported. The largest component of the overall sanction—R8 million—arose from the bank's failure to review 75,729 AML monitoring alerts within the required 48-hour window and to close 94,558 STR and SAR alerts within the prescribed 15-day period.
The three financial penalties of R4 million, R1 million and R8 million make up the R13 million total. The Prudential Authority noted Standard Bank's cooperation and the remedial actions it has taken on alert monitoring and regulatory reporting.
REGULATORY CONTEXT
South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre Act imposes comprehensive obligations on accountable institutions, including banks, to implement and maintain anti-money-laundering and counter-financing-of-terrorism frameworks. The Prudential Authority is the supervisory body for banks under the FIC Act, with powers to inspect them and to impose administrative sanctions for non-compliance.
The country was placed on the Financial Action Task Force grey list in February 2023, a designation reflecting the FATF's assessment that South Africa had strategic deficiencies in its AML and CFT regime.
Standard Bank is the largest bank in South Africa by total assets.