Pages across this hub quote these instruments verbatim and link back to the entries below. Status badges distinguish statute from guidance from history. Where paragraph numbers are cited for GN 7A, they follow the February 2025 publication, whose identification and verification passages are carried forward into the September 2025 revision — re-check pinpoints against the current PDF when quoting formally.
The Act and its amendments
Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FICA)
In forceParliament · In force from 2002, as amended
The principal Act: establishes the FIC, lists accountable institutions (Schedule 1), and imposes customer due diligence (ss 20A–21H), record-keeping (ss 22–24), reporting (ss 28–29), registration (s 43B), the RMCP (s 42) and sanctions (ss 45C, 46–68).
Section 21(1): an accountable institution must establish and verify the identity of its clients "in accordance with its Risk Management and Compliance Programme".FIC Act s 21(1)
FIC Amendment Act 1 of 2017
In forceParliament · Risk-based CDD provisions in force 2 October 2017
Introduced the risk-based approach: replaced prescriptive identification rules with RMCP-driven due diligence; added beneficial ownership (s 21B), ongoing due diligence (s 21C), PEP provisions (ss 21F–21H) and the section 42 RMCP.
General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022
In forceParliament · FICA amendments in force 31 December 2022
The grey-list response Act: tightened beneficial-ownership duties, extended the Act to proliferation financing, and simultaneously created the separate Companies Act / Trust Property Control Act beneficial-ownership registers.
Regulations and Schedules
Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Control Regulations (GN R1595 of 20 December 2002), as amended
In forceMinister of Finance · As amended — materially by GN R1062 (2017) and GN R2638 (2022)
GN R1062 (GG 41154, 29 September 2017) repealed the prescriptive identification chapter with effect from 2 October 2017 — the reason there is no statutory "FICA documents" list. GN R2638 (GG 47302, 2022) set the cash threshold at R49 999,99. The 2002 exemptions (including Exemption 17) were withdrawn from 2 October 2017.
Schedules 1–3 to the FIC Act, as substituted by GN 2800 (GG 47596, 29 November 2022)
In forceMinister of Finance · With effect from 19 December 2022
The current list of accountable institutions: legal practitioners and TCSPs, property practitioners, banks, life insurers, FSPs and CIS managers, forex and money/value transfer providers, gambling licensees, credit providers, crypto asset service providers, high-value goods dealers (R100 000+), the SA Mint, Postbank and payment clearing participants. Schedule 3 (reporting institutions) was abolished.
FIC guidance — the GN 7 lineage
Revised Guidance Note 7A on the implementation of various aspects of the FIC Act
Authoritative guidanceFinancial Intelligence Centre · 1 September 2025
The current core guidance on customer due diligence — replacing both Guidance Note 7A (13 February 2025) and Guidance Note 7 (2 October 2017). Defers to PCC 59 on beneficial ownership (the 25% indicator is gone), standardises PEP terminology (FPEP/DPEP/PIP), extends targeted financial sanctions coverage, and confirms RMCP board approval cannot be delegated. Paragraph references in this hub follow the February 2025 publication, whose identification and verification passages are carried forward; re-check pinpoints against the current PDF when quoting formally.
Institutions "now have the flexibility to choose the type of information by means of which it will establish clients’ identities and also the means of verification", with the nature and extent of verification determined by the assessed risk.GN 7A paras 74 and 84
Guidance Note 7A
SupersededFinancial Intelligence Centre · 13 February 2025
Replaced by the Revised Guidance Note 7A of 1 September 2025. Kept here because its paragraph numbering is the reference base for most current commentary (including this hub) and its para 103 was the last appearance of the 25% indicator.
Guidance Note 7
SupersededFinancial Intelligence Centre · 2 October 2017
The original risk-based-approach guidance, issued the day the prescriptive regulations were repealed. Its para 103 introduced the famous 25% indicator — "usually sufficient" to indicate control — which survived until September 2025.
Guidance Note 3A
WithdrawnFinancial Intelligence Centre · 2005 — withdrawn
Historical guidance under the pre-2017 prescriptive regime. The source of the "proof of address not older than 3 months" habit — which was a good-practice suggestion here, never a regulation. Cited in this hub only to explain where myths came from.
Public Compliance Communications
Public Compliance Communication 59 (PCC 59) — Beneficial ownership and section 21B
Authoritative guidanceFinancial Intelligence Centre · 8 August 2024
The FIC’s current position on beneficial ownership: the three-step elimination process, looking through layered structures, entity-by-entity guidance (companies, trusts, partnerships, partnerships en commandite, NPOs), and the strong recommendation to treat 5%+ ownership as a controlling ownership interest.
The FIC "strongly recommends that accountable institutions identify the persons who hold five percent or more of ownership interest in a legal person, which persons can be regarded as beneficial owners for purposes of section 21B(2)".PCC 59 para 2.18
Consultation Feedback Note on PCC 59
RecordFinancial Intelligence Centre · 2024
The FIC’s responses to industry comment on draft PCCs 121/121A (finalised as PCC 59). The source of two load-bearing confirmations: the 5% threshold "is therefore not an expansion of the law", and accountable institutions "cannot rely exclusively" on the CIPC/Master’s registers for their own due diligence.
PCC 12A — Reliance and outsourcing
Authoritative guidanceFinancial Intelligence Centre · 2021
Outsourcing a verification check does not outsource accountability: the institution remains fully responsible for the result. Also governs when one institution may rely on another’s due diligence — responsibility stays with the relying institution.
PCC 22A — FICA and POPIA
Authoritative guidanceFinancial Intelligence Centre · 2022
Resolves the supposed conflict between FICA and POPIA: processing personal information to comply with FICA is lawful — FICA provides the legal justification under POPIA. Collection must remain proportionate to the assessed risk.
PCC 53 — The Risk Management and Compliance Programme
Authoritative guidanceFinancial Intelligence Centre · 2022
Guidance on the section 42 RMCP — the documented, board-approved and implemented rulebook through which every accountable institution discharges its FICA duties.
PCC 58 — High-value goods dealers
Authoritative guidanceFinancial Intelligence Centre · March 2024
Interprets Schedule 1 item 20: any payment form (cash, EFT, card, crypto) of R100 000 or more, in a single operation or linked operations, makes the dealer an accountable institution.
Enforcement and context
SARB Prudential Authority — administrative sanctions on Capitec Bank
RecordSouth African Reserve Bank (Prudential Authority) · 20 December 2024
R56.25 million in financial penalties (R10.5m conditionally suspended), seven cautions and a reprimand — the largest findings being customer due diligence failures: verification of identity, identification of beneficial owners of legal entities, and ongoing due diligence.
FIC sanctions register and attorney-firm penalty
RecordFinancial Intelligence Centre / FIC Act Appeal Board · R7.77m penalty upheld 13 November 2024
The FIC’s R7.77 million penalty against an attorneys’ firm (RMCP and sanctions-screening failures) was upheld by the FIC Act Appeal Board. The FIC publishes all sanctions it issues; estate agencies, law firms and dealers are sanctioned routinely — non-functioning RMCPs and unverified beneficial ownership feature constantly.
National Treasury — FATF grey-listing and exit statements
RecordNational Treasury · Listed 24–25 February 2023; delisted 24 October 2025
South Africa spent February 2023 to October 2025 on the FATF grey list and exited after demonstrating, among other things, real CDD supervision and enforcement. The next FATF mutual evaluation begins in 2026, concluding in 2027 — supervisory intensity is not going away.
Pending
Draft General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill
DraftNational Treasury · Gazetted 14 January 2026 (GN 6997, GG 53955); comments closed 2 March 2026
Published for comment ahead of the 2026–27 FATF mutual evaluation: mainly sanctions, information-sharing (including lifestyle audits), NPO supervision and new-technology provisions. Nothing in the draft changes the customer due diligence framework described in this hub as at the date shown above.
Currency note
Official URLs occasionally move when the FIC reorganises its document library; if a link breaks, the instrument can be found via the FIC’s document library at fic.gov.za. This page is reviewed whenever a new instrument is issued — the “legal position stated as at” date at the top reflects the last review.