We monitor the FIC, National Treasury, Parliament, and FATF daily. When something changes that matters to South African accountable institutions, it lands here, reviewed by a human first, every time.
This follows up on our first look at Parliament's General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill, B15-2026, published earlier this month. It turns out to reach further than the record-keeping and beneficial-ownership changes already covered there: it amends five Acts in total, including the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, the Companies Act, the Close Corporations Act, the Nonprofit Organisations Act, and the Financial Sector Regulation Act.
Three changes matter most for estate agencies. First, the Financial Intelligence Centre would gain the power to conduct lifestyle audits, comparing what someone spends against what they declare; property purchases are a classic trigger for exactly that kind of check. Second, accountable institutions would pick up a new duty to assess the money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk of new delivery mechanisms and technologies before using them, not only their existing client base. Third, the beneficial-ownership discrepancy reporting to CIPC introduced earlier in this bill would extend to close corporations as well as companies, closing a gap for older property-holding entities that never converted.
None of this is in force yet. The bill has only had its first reading and takes effect only once the President proclaims a commencement date.
Parliament has introduced the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Bill, B15-2026, ahead of South Africa's next FATF evaluation. Two changes matter most for estate agencies.
First, the minimum period accountable institutions must keep client due diligence records would rise from five years to seven, measured from when a business relationship ends or a transaction concludes. Second, companies would need to report material mismatches between the beneficial ownership information they hold and what is recorded on CIPC's own beneficial ownership register, with CIPC able to deregister companies and fine them up to R10 million for repeated failures to keep that register current.
The bill has not yet passed or come into force. It only takes effect once the President proclaims a commencement date, so nothing changes for your files today, but the direction is worth knowing before it does.
Update, 31 August 2026: this bill turns out to reach further than described above, see our newer piece on the FIC's proposed lifestyle-audit powers and the Close Corporations Act tie-in: https://www.lucere.co.za/regulatory-updates/fic-would-gain-lifestyle-audit-powers-under-parliament-s-wider-aml-bill