Major South African bank hit with huge fine over anti-money laundering failures

The Prudential Authority of the South African Reserve Bank has announced the imposition of administrative sanctions on Capitec Bank Limited following regulatory inspections into the lender’s anti-money laundering frameworks.

The administrative penalties follow a 2023 inspection conducted under section 45B of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001.

The Prudential Authority announced on 11 September 2026 that it had issued five cautions alongside financial penalties totalling R28 million, of which R5.5 million has been conditionally suspended for 36 months starting from 13 October 2025.

The sanctions stem from multiple compliance breaches under the Act. According to the Prudential Authority, Capitec failed to perform adequate customer due diligence, resulting in a R10 million fine with R3 million suspended.

Additional penalties were issued for deficient enhanced due diligence (R5 million fine, R1 million suspended), inadequate ongoing due diligence (R5 million fine, R1 million suspended), and a R3 million fine for failing to provide ongoing employee training.

Furthermore, a R5 million fine with R500 000 suspended was levied for governance failures under section 42, including unapproved business banking screening manuals and missing terrorist property reporting controls.

“Capitec has cooperated with the PA to remediate the identified compliance deficiencies and control weaknesses,” the authority said in its statement.

How does Reserve Bank fine impact Capitec?

Despite the regulatory penalty, Capitec remains South Africa’s largest bank by customer base, serving 26 million clients. The retail bank recently posted a 23% surge in annual headline earnings to R11.6 billion while tapping R1 billion in client savings.

Chief executive officer Gerrie Fourie said in April 2026 that recent growth reflected “staying focused on what matters most: making banking simpler, more accessible and more affordable”.

The lender is currently locked in a fierce three-way battle for South Africa’s top banking spot by market capitalisation alongside Standard Bank Group and FirstRand. In May 2026, Standard Bank took the lead at R517 billion, with Capitec close behind at R511 billion and FirstRand at R503 billion.

In another development, Capitec recently completed a secondary listing on A2X Markets while retaining its primary Johannesburg Stock Exchange listing.