FICA - Financial Intelligence Centre Act

Legislation has been introduced in South Africa, in the form of the Prevention of Organized Crime Act, the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act, the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), to criminalise and combat money laundering and other organised crime activities.

The purpose of FICA is as follows:

"To establish a Financial Intelligence Centre and a Money Laundering Advisory Council in order to combat money laundering activities and the financing of terrorist and related activities;

to impose certain duties on institutions and other persons who might be used for money laundering purposes and the financing of terrorist activities;

to amend the Prevention of Organized Crime Act, 1998, and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000;

and to provide for matters connected therewith."

Together with all other registered Estate Agents in South Africa, Umhlanga Flat Services, as an "Accountable Institution" in terms of FICA and the Act contains stringent requirements with which we are obliged to comply. We adhere to all the obligations imposed by FICA and its regulations.

Our obligations in terms of FICA include the following:

• To establish and verify the identity of our clients (Section 21 of FICA Act);
• To keep records of business relations and transactions (Sections 22-26 of FICA Act);
• To report receipts of cash above a prescribed threshold to the Financial Inteligence Centre (Section 28 of FICA Act);
• To report suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Centre (Section 29 of FICA Act);
• To implement internal rules consistent with our obligations under FICA;
• To offer compulsory FICA training to our employees;
• To appoint a compliance officer;

We request your assistance in complying with our obligations. Whilst we appreciate that the client identification and verification process may not always be convenient, we are not permitted to establish a business relationship or conclude a single transaction with a client (ie lease/rent property) unless the prescribed steps have been taken to identify and verify the identity of that Client/Tenant. On a practical level this will involve obtaining a copy of the clients ID, a recent (less than 3 month old) utility bill in the clients name, showing the clients physical residential address (cannot be a PO Box). We may refuse to comfirm accommodation until such time as the prescribed information and documents have been provided to us.

To view the Financial Inteligence Center Act 38 of 2001 in it entirety please click here