Capitec hit with FICA Fines: What does this mean for your money?

South Africa’s financial regulators have handed down a combined R34 million in penalties to Capitec Bank and Ninety One Assurance for falling short of anti-money-laundering requirements. This forms part of the latest in a string of compliance crackdowns that has hit the country’s biggest financial institutions.

CAPITEC AND NINETY ONE HIT WITH FICA FINES

The South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority announced that it had imposed administrative sanctions on both institutions following inspections conducted in 2023 under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA). The announcement was made on on Friday 11 September.

Capitec received the larger penalty of R28 million, of which R5.5 million is conditionally suspended for 36 months. Ninety One Assurance was fined R6 million.

The regulator found Capitec had failed to adequately conduct customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, and ongoing due diligence on sampled client files. Inspectors also flagged inadequate ongoing staff training, along with deficiencies in the bank’s broader risk management and compliance programme. This included its processes for reporting terrorist property and screening against financial sanctions lists.

NOT THE FIRST TIME FOR CAPITEC

This is far from an isolated incident for South Africa’s largest bank by customer numbers. The latest fine follows a much larger R56 million penalty imposed on Capitec in December 2024. This was a result of earlier inspections covering 2017 to 2022. Both institutions say they cooperated fully with the Prudential Authority and have since implemented remedial action to close the compliance gaps identified.

FICA administrative penalties are not criminal sanctions, and they don’t constitute a finding that money laundering actually took place at either institution. Instead, they reflect regulators’ assessment that the internal controls these companies are legally required to maintain weren’t robust enough. This involves things like verifying customer identities, understanding the purpose of accounts, and monitoring transactions over time.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR MONEY

For everyday Capitec and Ninety One customers, these fines don’t mean funds are at risk or accounts are unsafe. What they do reflect is the broader tightening of South Africa’s financial oversight since the country was placed on the global Financial Action Task Force greylist in 2023. This was a result of over money-laundering control weaknesses.

SA officially exited that greylist in October last year, but regulators have continued auditing major institutions to ensure the fixes made were genuine and lasting. This means more fines, across more institutions, are likely as this scrutiny continues.