Home / Non-Accredited / Strategy, Risk, Governance & Compliance / FICA, Anti-Money Laundering and KYC Training (1 day)
Quick Look Course Summary:FICA, Anti-Money Laundering and KYC Training (1 day)
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Length: 1 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 8,159 EX VAT 3 Person R 5,295 EX VAT 10 Person R 3,794 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
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FICA, Anti-Money Laundering and KYC Training (1 day)
Staff who can identify and verify clients, recognise money-laundering red flags and escalate concerns correctly – and a record that shows your organisation trained them.
Money laundering rarely looks like crime at the front desk. It looks like a new client in a hurry, cash deposits kept just small enough, a company whose real owner nobody can name, or a third party settling an account for no clear reason. Under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, as amended (FICA), accountable institutions must understand their risks, identify and verify their clients and beneficial owners, keep records, screen against targeted financial sanctions and report to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC). The duty to report suspicious and unusual transactions goes further and applies to every business and its employees. FICA training is how staff learn to apply these duties consistently.
This practical one-day course explains the Act in plain language: the risk-based approach and the Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP), customer due diligence and KYC, beneficial ownership, prominent persons, record-keeping, targeted financial sanctions and the reports that go to the FIC. Delegates learn what each duty means in their own role, where judgement is needed and how to escalate a concern without tipping off the client.
The afternoon is case work. Delegates review realistic client files and transactions, test them against common red flags, decide whether a matter should be escalated for reporting and record their reasoning. Scenarios can be tailored to banking, insurance, investments, legal practice, property, high-value goods, crypto assets or your own sector.
Why this course
For your organisation
- Front-line staff who apply your RMCP consistently instead of guessing
- Client files that stand up better at an FIC or supervisory body inspection
- Suspicious activity escalated early and reported properly
- Documented, ongoing staff training, which the Act requires of accountable institutions
- Lower risk of administrative sanctions, criminal exposure and reputational damage
For your delegates
- A clear picture of what FICA expects from you in your role
- Confidence to verify individuals, companies and trusts and identify the beneficial owner
- A red-flag checklist for your sector
- Knowing when and how to escalate a concern – and what not to tell the client
- Practice on realistic case scenarios, with feedback from the facilitator
What delegates will be able to do
- Explain how money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing work and why criminals use ordinary businesses
- Describe the main duties FICA places on accountable institutions and the reporting duty that applies to every business
- Apply a risk-based approach to clients, products, delivery channels and geography in line with your organisation's RMCP
- Carry out customer due diligence on individuals, companies, trusts and partnerships, including identifying the beneficial owner
- Recognise when enhanced due diligence is needed, including for foreign prominent public officials and domestic prominent influential persons
- Keep client and transaction records that meet the Act's requirements and protect personal information
- Screen clients against the targeted financial sanctions list and respond correctly to a possible match
- Recognise red flags, escalate concerns internally and support accurate reports to the FIC without tipping off the client
- Explain the consequences of non-compliance for the organisation and for individual employees and managers
Who should attend
Front-line, onboarding and client-service staff, compliance officers and their teams, managers and directors responsible for FICA compliance, and internal auditors in accountable institutions such as banks, insurers, investment and financial services businesses, legal practitioners, property practitioners, high-value goods dealers and crypto asset service providers. It also suits finance, sales and administration staff in any business who need to recognise and report suspicious and unusual transactions.
Course outline
Day 1 – Know your client, manage the risk, report what you must
Money laundering and the South African legal framework
- What money laundering is: placement, layering and integration
- Terrorist financing and proliferation financing, and how they differ from laundering
- How criminals use ordinary businesses, products and employees
- FICA alongside the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) and the anti-terrorism legislation (POCDATARA)
- The Financial Intelligence Centre, the supervisory bodies and the international FATF standards
- South Africa's FATF evaluation and grey-listing: what it changed for business
- Accountable institutions, reporting institutions and the duties that apply to every business
- Registration with the FIC, and FIC guidance notes, public compliance communications and directives
The risk-based approach and your RMCP
- From tick-box rules to a risk-based approach: what changed and why
- Assessing risk by client, product or service, delivery channel and geography
- What a Risk Management and Compliance Programme must cover
- Board and senior management responsibility and the compliance officer's role
- Keeping the RMCP documented, approved, current and available to staff
- Your own part in applying the RMCP day to day
Customer due diligence and KYC
- No anonymous clients: establishing and verifying identity
- What to collect and verify for individuals, companies, trusts and partnerships
- Understanding the business relationship: its purpose, intended nature and the source of funds
- Beneficial ownership: finding the natural persons who ultimately own or control the client
- Beneficial ownership registers at CIPC and the Master of the High Court: a useful source, not a substitute for your own checks
- Enhanced due diligence for higher-risk clients, including foreign prominent public officials, domestic prominent influential persons, their family members and close associates
- Ongoing due diligence, doubts about earlier information and when to refresh a client file
- What to do when due diligence cannot be completed
Records and targeted financial sanctions
- The client due diligence and transaction records the Act requires
- How long records must be kept and in what form
- Records held by third parties, and why responsibility stays with your organisation
- Keeping FICA records secure and in line with POPIA
- Targeted financial sanctions: the UN Security Council lists that the FIC publishes
- Screening clients at onboarding and whenever the sanctions list is updated
- Handling a possible or confirmed match: no dealing in the property, and a terrorist property report
Reporting to the FIC
- Suspicious and unusual transaction and activity reports: a duty on every business and its employees
- Cash threshold reports and terrorist property reports: who must file them and when they apply
- When a concern becomes a suspicion, and recording the reasoning either way
- Escalating internally to the compliance officer and filing through the FIC's goAML system
- Tipping off: what you may and may not say to the client
- Legal protection for people who report in good faith
- After the report: continuing the transaction, FIC requests for information and intervention
Red flags, case scenarios and consequences
- Common red flags: reluctance to give information, structured cash, unexplained third-party payments and ownership with no clear purpose
- Red flags specific to your own sector
- Group case scenarios: a new corporate client, a prominent person, a sanctions match and an unusual transaction
- FIC and supervisory body inspections and what inspectors ask for
- Administrative sanctions, criminal offences and the personal exposure of employees and managers
- Personal exposure under POCA: the 'ought reasonably to have known' test
- Building a compliance culture and ongoing staff training
- Personal action plan and close
How it is delivered
One day, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20; case scenarios tailored to your sector on request. Workbook, red-flag checklist, case scenarios and a personal action plan included.
What our clients say
“All training programmes were delivered in a highly professional manner, with effective coordination and strict adherence to our scheduling requirements. The facilitators demonstrated a commendable level of expertise, and the quality of delivery consistently met our expectations.”
“The course was efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training”
“All training sessions were well-coordinated, professionally delivered, and aligned with our scheduling requirements. We were particularly impressed by the high standard of facilitation and the depth of expertise demonstrated throughout the programmes.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa, from one delegate to a group of 20. We can also host it at a BOTI venue or deliver it live online.
Is the course accredited or approved by the FIC?
No. It is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. BOTI is an independent training provider; the course is not issued, approved or endorsed by the Financial Intelligence Centre.
Does this help with our duty to train staff under the FIC Act?
It can form part of it. The Act requires accountable institutions to give employees ongoing training on the Act and on the institution's own RMCP. The course covers the Act; if you share your RMCP beforehand, the facilitator builds your procedures into the day. Keep the attendance register and certificates with your training records.
Can it be tailored to our sector?
Yes. Tell us your sector and send your onboarding procedure or two or three anonymised cases beforehand, and the facilitator builds your forms, client types and typical red flags into the case work. Remove anything confidential first.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is training on the FIC Act and how it is applied, given as general guidance. For a specific client, transaction, report or inspection, speak to your compliance officer or an attorney, and check the FIC's current published guidance.
Is there related compliance training?
Yes – BOTI also runs Ethics and Fraud, POPI, Corporate Governance and Risk Management training, which compliance and risk teams often book alongside this course.
Related courses
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