The lowdown on how cash transactions are managed in SA

There has been a lot of banter about paying people in cash lately, especially with the infamous Woolies bag saga – but what role should the banks be playing?

Director and Portfolio Manager at Denker Capital, Kokkie Kooyman explains the actual laws.

"There are basically four rules that banks have to comply with. First of all they have to report any cash transaction of R50 000 or more to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) within three days. Secondly, if there's an aggregation... when there are a lot of smaller transactions, which when linked, appear to be part of a R50 000 or larger transaction. Thirdly, they need to do their Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and monitor for suspicious activities. And fourthly, obviously the big thing – Know Your Customer (KYC).

"The emphasis on all these regulations is to report terrorist financing links, or money laundering."

On the question of why suspicious activity is often not investigated, Kooyman says after the banks have reported it to the FIC, it's essentially out of their hands.

"If you look at the prosecuting agencies, as to how poor they've been, I'm sure there are a lot of reports about money transfers which were suspicious – which the banks reported – that just never went further, that should have been investigated."

To listen to Kooyman in conversation with CapeTalk's John Maytham, click the audio below: