The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has labelled the response by lawyers and estate agents to its call in February for these professionals to submit risk and compliance returns (RCRs) that will help SA escape its greylisting as “not good enough”.
This comes as the FIC needs to submit an updated report on compliance to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) by the end of this week.
Legal practitioners’ offices and estate agents have been identified as high-risk categories by the global body that monitors money laundering and terrorism financing.
At a media presentation in February, the FIC warned that of the country’s roughly 16 000 legal practitioner offices, only 52% had submitted risk and compliance reports. Just 42% of the 9 000 estate agents had submitted reports.