Meeting held with representatives of NBFI Board Committees responsible for Risk and Compliance

As part of its mandate and in line with its objectives set out in section 5 of the NBFIRA Act of 2023, the Authority saw it fit to engage with representatives of the Board Committees of selected non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), with the view to share experiences and provide an avenue for dialogue between industry players and the Authority on issues of compliance that are of regulatory concern.

In his opening remarks, the CEO of NBFIRA, Mr. Oduetse Motshidisi, welcomed participants to the first breakfast session of its kind. Mr. Motshidisi then highlighted the need for NBFIs to set the tone at the top on issues of compliance, with particular emphasis on AML/CFT. He pointed out that the governing bodies or structures of NBFIs have to adopt proper procedures and controls within their organisations and cascade these to the entities’ operational functions. He further intimated that AML/CFT non-compliance issues, though committed at entity level, have national implications, hence adequate attention should be given to the mitigation of the associated risks.

Mr. Motshidisi also expressed NBFIRA’s concerns with the prevalent repeat contraventions by certain industry players, who, despite prior enforcement action, continue to be non-compliant, which is indicative of a poor governance culture. In closing, the NBFIRA CEO thanked the participants for honouring the Authority’s meeting invitation and advised participants that NBFIRA endeavours to host such collaborative and interactive engagements more frequently with its stakeholders, particularly the NBFIs.

The Director of AML/CFT Department, Mr. Mooketsi Ramanteba, then gave a presentation on AML/CFT/P regulatory experiences, challenges and learnings; wherein participants were sensitised on the obligations of NBFIs in the deterrence of ML/FT/PF, as well as those of NBFIRA as a supervisory authority, in view of the Financial Intelligence Act. Mr. Ramanteba shared statistics on AML/CFT inspections conducted on NBFIs in 2021-2024 and gave an overview of the notable non-compliance issues identified therein. He further alluded that among the root causes of majority of non-compliance issues are inadequate Board oversight of AML/CFT issues and inadequate/no direct access/reporting of AML/CFT Compliance Officers to the Boards/governing bodies of entities.

Mr. Ramanteba proceeded to update the participants on recent key legislative changes in the AML/CFT landscape, being the amendments of the Financial Intelligence Act and the Virtual Assets Act, respectively. In conclusion, he briefly stated the consequences of non-compliance with AML/CFT regulatory requirements both at NBFI and national level.

The breakfast session was held with industry players within the life insurance, micro lending and asset management sub-sectors.