The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has levied administrative sanctions on Deutsche Bank AG – Johannesburg Branch (Deutsche Bank) and asked it to undertake corrective measures. The SARB’s decision comes after a 2019 inspection of the Bank uncovered several AML-related weaknesses against the requirements of the country’s Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FIC Act).
As per the SARB’s inspection, Deutsche Bank failed to comply with the FIC Act’s risk management and compliance programme (RMCP). The Bank also failed to comply with the Act’s customer due diligence (CDD) and enhanced due diligence (EDD) requirements. Furthermore, Deutsche Bank failed to comply with record-keeping requirements of the FIC Act. In all cases, the SARB has cautioned the Bank against repetition of the conduct which led to this non-compliance. Moreover, the SARB has levied a financial penalty of R15 million ($1.02m) on Deutsche Bank for its CDD and EDD failures. In addition, it has imposed a financial penalty of R20 million ($1.36m) for record-keeping failures, of which it has suspended R10 million ($680,000) penalty for three years.
Deutsche Bank also did not comply with the governance of AML/CFT compliance requirements in the FIC Act. For this violation, the SARB has issued a reprimand and levied a penalty of R3 million ($200,000).
In totality, the SARB has levied a financial penalty of R28 million ($1.91m; not including the amount that has been suspended for three years). Deutsche Bank has agreed to undertake all appropriate corrective measures to rectify its errors.
Source: South African Reserve Bank