FIC Registration in South Africa

The Financial Intelligence Centre states that the legal practitioners listed in the FIC Act include legal practitioners who are practising on their own account, commercial juristic entities, and advocates who are in possession of a fidelity fund certificate and who take instructions directly from the public.

An accountable institution must register with the Centre. Registration is a standing status rather than a one-off window, and the Centre publishes no closing date for it.

The Centre publishes 19 December 2022 as the date the amendment to Schedule 1, item 1 of the FIC Act took effect, which is the amendment that reaches designated advocates.

Attorneys practising on their own account and commercial juristic entities were already listed. The 2022 amendment is what added the advocates the Centre describes.

The Centre publishes the categories its registration requirement does not reach:

• advocates who accept briefs from an attorney and who do not take instructions from the public, or who do not have a fidelity fund certificate, which the Centre states are not required to register with the FIC
• legal practitioners employed by a commercial juristic entity, as contemplated in section 34(7) of the Legal Practice Act, that is itself registered with the FIC, which the Centre states are not required to register separately

The Centre states that registration is done on its goAML portal and is free. The Centre publishes the registration steps and the supporting information it asks for on that portal.

This requirement appears in the regulatory requirements section of your professional dashboard. If one of the Centre's published categories applies to your practice, you can record the requirement as not applicable and cite the category you are relying on.

We record the category you cite. We do not check it against the Financial Intelligence Centre, and recording it here is not confirmation from the Centre that it covers you. Your declaration is a statement about your circumstances now, so we ask you to confirm it again each year.

The Centre's notice this page reports answers the registration question. It does not report the separate risk management and compliance programme, customer due diligence, record keeping and reporting duties the FIC Act places on an accountable institution once registered, nor the duties the Legal Practice Council sets for its own members. Those sit with the Centre and the Council respectively.

Orchard72 is a technology marketplace that connects users with legal, financial, and tax professionals. We do not provide legal, tax, or regulatory advice.

We report published regulatory requirements as a courtesy to help professionals stay informed. This is not advice, and professionals should always verify their position directly with the Financial Intelligence Centre or with the Legal Practice Council.

• Financial Intelligence Centre: advocates must register with the FIC (opens in a new tab)
• Financial Intelligence Centre: registration and reporting (opens in a new tab)