Legislation: Draft cash, EFT Fica regulations out for comment

Draft money laundering and terrorist financing control regulations have been released for comment by 1 April, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. According to an accompanying Government Gazette notice, their purpose is to amend existing requirements in respect of cash transactions above a prescribed threshold (section 28 of the 2001 Financial Intelligence Centre Act); and to operationalised section 31 of the Act, which focuses on ‘moving funds electronically across the borders of SA’. Both sections deal with the reporting obligations of accountable institutions conducting transactions on behalf of their clients.

Summarising the draft regulations, a National Treasury media statement, among other things, notes a proposal to double the cash transactions threshold, increase the reporting timeframe concerned and ‘dispense with the aggregation requirement’. Regarding cross-border electronic fund transfers, it is envisaged that any transaction of R5 000 or more should be reported to the Financial Intelligence Centre. Both proposals are made in the context of issues unpacked in an accompanying consultation paper.

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