South African Reserve Bank Prudential Authority imposes ZAR 3 million administrative penalty on Discovery Bank for Financial Intelligence Centre Act non-compliance

The South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority has imposed administrative sanctions on Discovery Bank Limited for non-compliance with provisions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, following an inspection conducted in 2021. The sanctions comprise four cautions not to repeat the relevant conduct and a ZAR 3 million financial penalty, of which ZAR 1 million is conditionally suspended for 36 months from 9 July 2025. The action relates to four areas of non-compliance: failure to timeously submit 24 Suspicious and Unusual Transaction Reports or Suspicious and Unusual Activity Reports (ZAR 1 million penalty, with ZAR 500,000 suspended); failure to deliver prescribed training under its Risk Management and Compliance Programme (including 84 of 155 new employees not trained within 30 days, 47 of 109 employees not receiving annual refresher training within a year, and 2 of 6 senior managers not trained within 30 days) (ZAR 1 million penalty); failure to address 2,281 automated transaction monitoring alerts within 48 hours under Financial Intelligence Centre Act Directive 5/2019 (ZAR 1 million penalty, with ZAR 500,000 suspended); and deficiencies in documenting RMCP review triggers and defining a business day for cash transaction reporting (caution only). Discovery Bank has cooperated with remedial actions to address the identified compliance deficiencies and control weaknesses.