Following comments invited in January this year by the National Treasury, the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing [AML/CTF]) Amendment Bill) has been introduced to Parliament and now resides with the Standing Committee on Finance. That committee has invited stakeholders, interested parties, and the public to submit further written comments on the latest version of the bill.
The submission period opened on 10 July and closes on Monday, 10 August 2026. Submissions must be directed to the committee secretaries, Allan Wicomb and Teboho Sepanya, at awicomb@parliament.gov.za and tsepanya@parliament.gov.za respectively, by no later than 12h00 on 10 August.
As with the original act, the General Laws (AML/CTF) bill aims to amend:
- The Close Corporations Act, 1984
- the Nonprofit Organisations Act, 1997
- the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001
- the Companies Act, 2008 and
- the Financial Sector Regulation Act, 2017.
Provisions in the bill will address the “remaining deficiencies identified in the 2021 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluation Report for South Africa, and also during the remedial process that culminated in South Africa exiting the FATF grey list in October 2025”. The amendments also seek to secure a better rating for South Africa for the current FATF mutual evaluation, which concludes in October 2027.
Among the proposed amendments are a formal provision for the Financial Intelligence Centre to conduct lifestyle audits, while the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission is empowered to deregister companies that fail to submit securities registers or beneficial ownership registers for two or more consecutive years, and to impose administrative penalties for non-compliance. Another important development is that the bill requires accountable institutions e.g. banks to watch the potential risk of new delivery mechanisms and the use of new or developing technologies, such as crypto or fintech apps, which may involve or facilitate money laundering activities.
“Public hearings on the bill will be held on Tuesday, 11 August 2026,” said the committee in a notice. “Those who want to make submissions at the public hearings should specifically request this. The hearings will be conducted through Zoom.”
Guidelines on writing a submission.
