Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Lesetja Kganyago, said the Prudential Authority focused on several measures to strengthen South Africa’s financial system.
Image: Facebook | SARB
South Africa's banking and insurance watchdog imposed more than R115 million in regulatory penalties on financial institutions during the 2024/25 financial year.
Of these fines, Capitec received the largest sanction, the Prudential Authority's latest annual report shows.
The report's enforcement section details a series of administrative sanctions imposed on banks, insurers and other regulated entities for contraventions of financial sector legislation, including failures to comply with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) and prudential requirements.
Writing in the annual report, South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the authority “focused on several measures to strengthen South Africa’s financial system” during the period.
“We have continued to focus on protecting financial customers, guarding against risks such as ever-more sophisticated cyberattacks and intensifying climate change, while encouraging healthy lending to support economic activity.”
Nomfundo Tshazibana, deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank and CEO of the Prudential Authority, said it “continues to apply a risk-based, forward-looking supervisory plan that includes regular bilateral engagements with foreign regulators, in-country visits and supervisory colleges for banking groups and internationally active insurance groups”.
These engagements, Tshazibana said, have provided valuable insights and enabled timely and appropriate regulatory action when necessary.
Capitec Bank received the largest penalty of R56.25 million, of which R10.5 million was suspended, after the Prudential Authority found multiple contraventions relating to anti-money laundering controls, customer due diligence, cash threshold reporting, suspicious transaction reporting and risk management and compliance requirements.
The enforcement action extended across a broad cross-section of South Africa's financial sector.
Among the institutions sanctioned were Old Mutual Life, Sanlam-owned Safrican Insurance, the South African subsidiary of India's State Bank of India, mutual savings bank Finbond, Eskom's captive insurer Escap, Assupol Life, Lewis Group-owned Monarch Insurance, commercial insurer Infiniti Insurance and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union Savings and Credit Co-operative (NEHAWU SACCO).
Old Mutual Life was fined R15.9 million, while Safrican Insurance received a R13 million administrative penalty. The State Bank of India South Africa was fined R10.25 million, Escap R7.645 million, Finbond Mutual Bank R5 million, Assupol Life R4 million, Infiniti Insurance R2.14 million, Monarch Insurance R1 million, and NEHAWU SACCO R20,000.
Beyond the penalties themselves, the report provides a snapshot of the regulator's broader enforcement activity.
The Prudential Authority said it considered 141 non-compliance referrals during the financial year involving alleged contraventions of financial sector legislation and FICA. It also conducted 22 on-site anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) inspections across banks, foreign bank branches and life insurers.
The heightened enforcement comes as South Africa works to preserve the reforms that secured its removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in October 2025.
In its June Quarterly Bulletin, the South African Reserve Bank said South Africa's exit from the grey list, together with the Bank's transition to a revised 3% inflation target, had boosted investor sentiment during 2025. The central bank also noted that capital inflows ahead of the October announcement reflected improving fiscal metrics and market anticipation of South Africa's removal from the FATF grey list.
Authorities have continued strengthening the country's anti-money laundering framework since then. From 1 July, travellers entering or leaving South Africa must declare cash, goods or bearer negotiable instruments exceeding R100,000 through SARS Customs, while regulators are preparing financial institutions and other accountable institutions for South Africa's next FATF mutual evaluation, expected to conclude in 2027.
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