Impact of Cleint Record Keeping on the Legal Profession in South Africa

Abstract

The combating of money laundering has become crucial since it has escalated from a domestic to an international problem and vice versa. South Africa, in an attempt to combat money laundering has enacted anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorism legislation. The legislation consists of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA); the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FICA); and the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act 33 of 2004 (POCDATARA). In essence POCA and POCDATARA criminalise money laundering and terrorist financing. FICA requires certain professions, such as the legal profession to maintain specific controls. Such controls include AML measures, combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) and also require the keeping of confidential client records, the filing of suspicious transaction reports (STR's) and certain cash transaction reports (CTR's).