Author: Hawken McEwan

For law firms across South Africa, the challenge of FICA compliance is becoming a mounting (and unnecessary) trade-off between the efficient, profitable practice of law and the arduous, often error-prone demands of manual compliance administration. This traditional approach drains valuable billable hours from legal professionals and, more critically, exposes firms to potentially crippling penalties. With South Africa losing almost R3.3 billion to financial crime in 2023 alone, the urgency for robust, technologically driven compliance measures has never been greater in an industry being heavily targeted by money launderers. FICA compliance, in general, has reached unprecedented criticality, particularly since South Africa’s…

In the ongoing battle against financial crime, South Africa has taken a significant step forward. The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has recently issued new guidance on Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO), lowering the threshold expected for identifying controlling ownership from 25% to 5%. This change, detailed in Public Compliance Communication 59 (PCC59), represents a crucial shift in our approach to combating money laundering, corruption, and other financial crimes. Understanding the change For years, it was generally understood that a 25% shareholding was sufficient to establish ownership or control of a company. However, criminals have become increasingly sophisticated, often using complex webs…