Have Your Say: The General Laws (Anti-money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill (B18-2022)

The Standing Committee on Finance invites stakeholders and interested parties to submit written submissions on the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill (B18-2022)

The General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill (B18-2022) aims to amend:

  • the Trust Property Control Act, 1988 to prevent the misuse of trusts for money laundering or terrorist financing, ensure that there is adequate, accurate and timely information on trusts, including information on the trustee and beneficiaries, that can be obtained or accessed in a timely fashion by the authorities, and address the deficiencies relating to trustees being required to obtain full information on beneficial ownership when they are creating trusts;
  • the Nonprofit Organisations Act, 1997, to ensure that nonprofit organisations are not misused by terrorist organisations, or vulnerable to terrorist financing abuse;
  • the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001, to effect certain amendments to the objectives and powers of the Financial Intelligence Centre; customer due diligence requirements; to amend provisions relating to a “beneficial owner”; to amend provisions and Schedules relating to “politically exposed persons”; to amend provisions relating to the risk management and compliance programme and targeted financial sanctions; and amend provisions providing for the amendment of Schedule 2 to the Act and the Schedules.
  • the Companies Act, 2008, to require that there is adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on the beneficial ownership and control of legal persons that can be obtained or accessed rapidly and efficiently by the authorities, through a register of beneficial ownership; and
  • the Financial Sector Regulation Act, 2017, to enable the financial sector regulators to issue standards and directives in relation to beneficial owners of financial institutions.

The above amendments are to give effect to 14 recommendations contained in South Africa’s Mutual Evaluation Report of the Financial Action Taskforce Force (FATF) which require urgent legislative amendments.

Submissions must be received by no later than 12:00 on Monday, 10 October 2022.

Those who want to make submissions at public hearings on Tuesday, 11 October 2022 should specifically request this. These hearings will be conducted through Zoom.

Submissions must be directed to the Committee Secretaries, Mr Allen Wicomb and Ms Teboho Sepanya, 3rd Floor, 90 Plein Street, Cape Town, 8000 or awicomb@parliament.gov.za / tsepanya@parliament.gov.za / tel. (021) 403-3759 / (021) 403-3662.

Issued by Hon. J Maswanganyi, MP, Chairperson: Standing Committee on Finance (National Assembly)