Using a risk-based approach to combat money laundering and terrorist financing
South Africa - De Rebus
As accountable institutions listed in sch 1 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FIC Act), legal practitioners are required to apply a risk-based approach when establishing a business relationship and/or conducting a single transaction with a client.
This requirement aligns with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which sets international standards on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
The application of a risk-based approach – when implementing controls –
allows a legal practitioner to mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing. Controls put in place by legal practitioners must be in proportion to the risks they identify. To comply with the requirement of applying a risk-based approach, legal practitioners must identify, assess, monitor, mitigate and manage the risk that their products and/or services may be abused by criminals for money laundering and/or terrorist financing.
De Rebus
Rescue plans for struggling Sectional Title schemes
South Africa - Property360
With changing lifestyles and affordability constraints prompting increasing numbers of home buyers and investors to opt for apartments and townhouses rather than freehold homes.
“Sadly, though, the number of sectional title (ST) schemes that are struggling to stay solvent is also rising rapidly, and owners in those schemes are at risk of losing their investments unless their trustees take swift action to remedy the situation, says Andrew Schaefer, MD of national property management company Trafalgar.
ST schemes can get into financial difficulties for many reasons, the most common of which are the under-recovery of levies over a long period and the sudden receipt of a very large account for the actual rather than estimated consumption of municipal services such as electricity and water. Low emergency reserves and undetected overcharging by local authorities are also fairly common.
Property360
Technology will always win - video links and the courtroom of the future
South Africa - LexisNexis
Legal practitioners are creatures of tradition and certainty. They prefer all rules to be codified and all legislation to be clear. They yearn for certainty and frown upon ambiguity within contracts, laws and especially legal proceedings. Thus there is a call for the codification of video conferencing, through video links, within the Uniform Rules of Court. While there is widespread acceptance of video conferencing through video links within court proceedings reflected in South African case law, legislation and Court Rules need amending to facilitate a codified and structured method for practitioners to use video conferencing in court, instead of having to rely on precedents.
Precedents in South African case law
South African cases, such as MK v Transnet Ltd t/a Portnet and Randgold and Exploration Company Limited v Gold Fields Operations Limited and others, have already provided precedents for video conferences via video links and how they can operate and be effected within South African legal proceedings.
LexisNexis
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