PA imposes administrative sanctions on Capitec Bank Limited

Pretoria - The Prudential Authority (PA) has announced that it has imposed administrative sanctions on Capitec Bank Limited (Capitec) as a result of its non-compliance with certain provisions of the FIC Act, following an inspection conducted in 2023 in terms of section 45B of the FIC Act.

The PA is mandated to supervise and enforce compliance by accountable institutions with the provisions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FIC Act), and with any order, determination or directive made in terms thereof.

The regulator said the administrative sanctions imposed on Capitec consist of five cautions not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance, and a financial penalty totalling R28 million, of which R5.5 million is conditionally suspended for a period of 36 months as from 13 October 2025.

These administrative sanctions stem from the following non-compliance by Capitec:

1. Capitec failed to comply with section 21, read with sections 42(1) and 42(2)(d), of the FIC Act, in that it failed to conduct adequate customer due diligence on the sampled client files. The PA imposed a caution not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance and a financial penalty of R10 million, of which R3 million is conditionally suspended for a period of 36 months.
2. Capitec failed to comply with section 21A, read with sections 42(1) and 42(2)(e), of the FIC Act, in that it failed to conduct adequate enhanced due diligence on the sampled client files. The PA imposed a caution not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance and a financial penalty of R5 million, of which R1 million is conditionally suspended for a period of 36 months.      
3. Capitec failed to comply with section 21C, read with sections 42(1) and 42(2)(g), of the FIC Act, in that it failed to conduct adequate ongoing due diligence on the sampled client files. The PA imposed a caution not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance and a financial penalty of R5 million, of which R1 million is conditionally suspended for a period of 36 months.
4. Capitec failed to comply with section 43 of the FIC Act, in that it failed to provide ongoing training to the sampled employees. The PA imposed a caution not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance and a financial penalty of R3 million.
5. Capitec failed to comply with section 42 of the FIC Act, in that it failed to:

• • obtain management approval for its business bank anti-money laundering name screening and payment screening investigation manuals before implementation thereof;
  • evidence that it had documented and approved end-to-end processes pertaining to terrorist property reporting (TPR) prior to receiving an inspection notification letter from the PA; and
  • adequately develop, document and/or provide for policies, procedures, standards and controls in its Risk Management and Compliance Programme relating to TPR and financial sanctions.

The PA said it imposed a caution not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance and a financial penalty of R5 million, of which R500 000 is conditionally suspended for a period of 36 months.

It concluded that Capitec has cooperated with the regulator to remediate the identified compliance deficiencies and control weaknesses.