South Africa’s National Treasury has published for public comment an updated draft General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill as part of a broader overhaul of the country’s financial crime framework. The draft bill, building on earlier amendments first circulated in December 2024, proposes changes to multiple existing statutes that regulate companies, financial institutions and non‑profit organisations to close identified loopholes in the fight against illicit finance.
Authorities say the reforms are designed to consolidate and deepen earlier compliance upgrades that enabled South Africa to be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “grey list” in 2025, while preparing for the country’s next mutual evaluation scheduled between mid‑2026 and October 2027. The package aims to support long‑term financial stability and investor confidence by demonstrating that South Africa can detect, disrupt and punish sophisticated financial crime and terror financing schemes.
Key targets and scope
The proposed amendments explicitly seek to improve the state’s ability to identify and pursue the natural persons who ultimately control corporate and other legal arrangements used to launder funds or channel money to terrorist groups. This includes tightening beneficial ownership transparency requirements so that regulators and law enforcement can look beyond front companies, complex shareholding structures and professional intermediaries to the individuals pulling the strings.
Non‑governmental and non‑profit organisations, which global standard‑setters have warned can be misused for terror financing, are also a specific focus of the reforms. The draft bill updates the regulatory treatment of these entities to improve oversight of their funding flows, governance and reporting duties, without explicitly characterising the sector as inherently high‑risk.
Expanded powers for the Financial Intelligence Centre
A central feature of the bill is the expansion of the mandate and information‑sharing powers of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the agency responsible for receiving and analysing reports of suspicious transactions and other financial intelligence. Proposed amendments to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FIC Act) would allow the FIC to share data more widely across the state, including with the Public Procurement Office and the Border Management Authority, to better detect corruption-linked laundering and cross‑border flows.
The FIC would also be expressly authorised to collect, use and disseminate information obtained through lifestyle audits, which compare individuals’ declared income with their visible wealth and expenditure to identify possible illicit enrichment. At the same time, the draft introduces additional protections for personal information, extending the safeguards in the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013, to more parts of the FIC Act to balance investigative reach with privacy concerns.
Lifestyle audits and individual accountability
Lifestyle audits are emerging as a prominent tool in South Africa’s effort to pursue individuals suspected of siphoning off state resources or laundering criminal proceeds through luxury assets and opaque structures. By embedding explicit references to such audits in the legislative framework, the authorities aim to ensure that discrepancies between declared income and actual wealth can be used more systematically to trigger financial intelligence analysis and potential enforcement action.
The reforms signal a policy shift toward personal accountability by making it easier for prosecutors and regulators to trace beneficial owners and controllers behind shell companies, trusts and complex corporate vehicles. Officials have indicated that stronger penalties and more efficient asset‑tracing tools are intended to deter individuals from hiding behind legal structures and professional gatekeepers when moving illicit funds or supporting proscribed organisations.
Alignment with international standards and next steps
The draft bill responds to deficiencies identified in South Africa’s 2021 FATF mutual evaluation, which highlighted shortcomings in beneficial ownership transparency, non‑profit oversight and the effectiveness of money laundering and terrorist financing investigations. Authorities state that the current amendments complement earlier legislative fixes adopted to avert grey‑listing and are designed to entrench a more robust, risk‑based system in line with evolving FATF recommendations.
National Treasury has invited stakeholders, including financial institutions, businesses, civil society groups and professional bodies, to submit comments on the revised text before it is finalised and submitted to Parliament. Industry participants are expected to scrutinise the proposed powers for the FIC, the scope of lifestyle audits, and the compliance implications for non‑profits and smaller entities as the legislative process advances