Latest news with #Fica
Time of India
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Luka Doncic's luxurious car collection: His favorite Brabus Rocket, a $363,730 Ferrari 812 Superfast and more
Image credit: Luka Doncic/Instagram Luka Doncic has built a decade-long basketball career, but his car collection is equally impressive. The Los Angeles Lakers star owns 13 vehicles in his lavish collection, though he's yet to purchase his dream car. A quick look at his garages in Slovenia and the U.S. makes one thing clear: he has a strong love for red cars. From a cute red car as a birthday gift to his most expensive red car, there is a lot that makes Doncic's garage a sight to savor. Luka Doncic's car collection stands out as most unique in NBA Luka Doncic's love for cars comes second only to basketball — a passion he's held since childhood. 'I think since I was a little kid. You know, I always wanted to have… Basketball is first, then cars, the little cars you have to play with. So, since I was a little kid, I had on my computer the pictures of cars,' Doncic once revealed on the Pass the Rock show on the NBA app. The 6-foot-6 champion calls the Brabus Rocket 1000 his favorite car. It's a limited-edition model, 25 in total, featuring a 1000cc engine and red interior detailing. What makes the collection even more special is his emotional attachment to two vintage classics that he holds close to his heart. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo He owns a purple and blue 1968 Chevrolet Camaro and a sky-blue 1967 Ford Bronco and calls them 'special'. Interestingly, his very first car was a Fica — a small, iconic vehicle that was once hugely popular in Yugoslavia. Luka Doncic has quite a few expensive red cars Luka Doncic's most expensive and eye-catching supercars are mostly red, his apparent favorite color when it comes to choosing cars. He owns a red Ferrari 812 Superfast, priced at $363,730 — the most expensive in his collection. Other red beauties include a red Audi A7, a red Porsche 911 Turbo S (worth $216,100), and a cute red Zastava 750, gifted to him by his parents on his 18th birthday. Among the other powerful machines in his collection are the Apocalypse Hellfire 6x6, Koenigsegg Regera, Mercedes AMG G63 Brabus 800, Lamborghini Urus (priced at $221,506), Porsche Panamera 4, and Porsche Electric Panamera. Also Read: Austin Reaves' Agent Opens Up About Rift With Luka Doncic as Lakers Reaffirm Commitment to Star Duo However, Doncic is still waiting to fulfill one dream — owning a Bugatti. In an interview with Overtime last year, he admitted that the car is 'too expensive' and that he hasn't bought it yet. For real-time updates, scores, and highlights, follow our live coverage of the India vs England Test match here . Game On Season 1 continues with Mirabai Chanu's inspiring story. Watch Episode 2 here.
The Citizen
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
This is how Prudential Authority cracked the whip last year
The Prudential Authority promotes and enhances the safety and soundness of the financial system by regulating and supervising financial institutions. The Prudential Authority of the South African Reserve Bank cracked the whip during the previous financial year, starting investigations into 35 deposit-taking schemes and fining 16 companies R134.23 million for not complying with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica). The Prudential Authority is responsible for setting the prudential standards and regulations governing the financial sector to ensure the stability and resilience of financial institutions. The Prudential Authority has the mandate to: Promote and enhance the safety and soundness of financial institutions, such as banks and insurers Protect financial customers against the risk of institutions failing to meet their obligations Support the South African Reserve Bank in maintaining financial stability. The Prudential Authority initiated investigations into 35 illegal schemes accepting deposits from the public. Four more were added from the previous year. In the previous financial year, the Prudential Authority started with investigations into 187 new schemes not registered as insurers, with 60 added from the previous year, while 127 were completed. ALSO READ: The actual cost of non-compliance with Fica Fines from the Prudential Authority for Fica non-compliance The Prudential Authority also conducted 22 investigations at banks, life insurers and branches of foreign banks to check if they comply with anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism requirements. During its inspections, the Prudential Authority found that 16 companies did not comply with the Fica and imposed administrative fines of R134.23 million. R29 million of this amount was provisionally suspended. According to the report, Capitec received the highest administrative fine of R56.25 million, with R10.5 million suspended, as well as seven warnings and a reprimand for non-compliance such as failing to adequately conduct customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence and ongoing due diligence, ensure timely cash threshold reporting, not reporting suspicious transactions and suspicious activity. Old Mutual Life Assurance Company was fined R15.9 million for similar offences, with R5.9 million provisionally suspended. The Prudential Authority also fined Standard Bank R13 million, while Escap SOC was fined R7.6 million for non-compliance with the Insurance Act and other industry standards, as well as standards for corporate management. ALSO READ: Prudential Authority and FSCA reviewing regulations for funeral insurance Extent of Prudential Authority's supervision According to the report, the Prudential Authority supervised 27 banks, including 16 banks registered in South Africa. The assets of these banks were R8 231.2 billion, 6% more than a year ago. These banks supplied loans and credit to the value of R5 873, 5% than a year before and wrote off loans to the value of R308 billion, 3% more than a year ago. The banks were also more profitable, with the average return of earnings reaching 15.8% compared to 14.8% the year before. The three mutual banks in the country had assets to the value of R4.1 billion, 11% more than a year ago, while they supplied loans and credit that were 5% higher than a year ago at R3.2 billion. These banks only started showing a profit since February 2023 after a long period of losses, with an average return of earnings increasing from 2% in the previous year to 3.8%. Loans in arrears amounted to R400 million. The Prudential Authority also supervised 155 insurers with assets of more than R4 960 billion, of which most belonged to life insurers. Insurers paid out claims to the value of R625.7 billion, almost 9% more than the year before. The Authority also supervises the Road Accident Fund and Lloyds.
The Citizen
25-06-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Schreiber slams TymeBank CEO for ‘profiteering over people'
Home Affair this week announced it will be increasing the cost that companies must pay to verify people's identities by up to 6,500%. A spat has erupted between Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber and TymeBank CEO Coenraad Jonker, with the minister saying the bank is putting 'profiteering over people!' On Tuesday, Jonker criticised Home Affairs identity online verification system (OVS) check fee hike warning Schreiber in an open letter that he should reverse his decision to increase the fee for accessing identity verification services. Verification services Home Affairs this week announced it will be increasing the cost that companies must pay to verify people's identities by up to 6,500% in an effort to correct what it called 'unsustainable under-pricing of verification services.' The department also announced on Monday that it will launch an upgraded verification system for the national population register (NPR). The OVS allows third-party companies, including banks, insurance companies and mobile network operators, to verify the identities and other biographical information of their clients against the NPR. These checks are a requirement under specific legislation, including the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica) and the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act (Rica). ALSO READ: TymeBank founder warns minister about fee increase for ID verification Price increase Home Affairs gazetted a new price structure for real-time identity checks, increasing the fee from 15 cents to R10 from July. For verifications during off-peak hours, companies can perform a batch of verifications for R1. The department said extreme under-pricing of the OVS led to profiteering and abuses by some users that overwhelmed the NPR and caused failure rates in excess of 50%, contributing to 'system offline' failures at Home Affairs offices and threatening national security. This is an increase of 6 500%. Tyme not happy In a strongly worded letter on Tuesday, Jonker warned that the fee hike will 'unravel years of progress in digital transformation, financial inclusion and economic justice.' 'Today, South Africa is one of the most inclusively priced countries in the world, comparing well with Panama, Colombia and Peru, at 2 US cents per identity lookup. Your new fee makes South Africa almost twice as expensive as the most expensive peer group countries, like Pakistan and Ecuador.' 'Robbing SA' Jonker said the price increase would make it impossible for Tyme to allow clients to open an account in real-time with no monthly fees. 'Your new fee will make this impossible, robbing South Africa of its only accessible and free bank account.' Jonker said Schreiber's decision shifts the cost of what should be a state-funded utility onto the shoulders of the poor. 'It imposes a regressive tax that penalises those with the least. 'Identity verification is a public good. Around the world, it is subsidised or fully funded due to its essential role in national development. Yet here, in a time when our country most needs inclusivity, innovation and trust, we choose exclusion. 'As my example illustrates, the price hike is wildly out of line with the average cost per user compared to South Africa's peer group countries,' Jonker said. ALSO READ: Home affairs ID verification cost to increase by up to 6 500% Digital world He said the R1 batch lookup fee was not a practical alternative, as real-time lookups are crucial in the digital world. Jonker said that Tyme contributed to the public participation process for the fee increase but was 'clearly ignored'. Among the suggestions he put forward in the open letter are a phased fee structure and volume-based discounts. Schreiber hits back Schreiber struck back and slammed Jonker on social media. . In a post on X, he said that banks, insurers and Cosatu recognised the need to fix the process. 'The CEO of a Unicorn worth R26,700,000,000.00 demands that taxpayers struggling to afford food must subsidise it, as it refuses to pay more than 15 cents for a service that costs vastly more to provide and that contributes to 'system offline' at Home Affairs offices?' Schreiber wrote. 'Shocking' is the fact that you paid a measly 15 cents for years, relying on taxpayers to subsidise the rest of the actual cost while you profited. 'Shocking' is that we have your CEO admitting, in writing, that he never even read our letter inviting public comment, then approached a political party from the shadows after the comment period closed to try and apply pressure, and now dishonestly claims he was not consulted. 'Shocking' is trying to prevent Home Affairs from correcting under-pricing to invest in the NPR before it cripples national security. Take your faux outrage somewhere else and stop putting profiteering over people!' Schreiber said. Mobile operators The Association of Communications and Technology (ACT), an organisation representing mobile operators such as Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom, also criticised the fee, saying that the organisation had previously written to the department to raise concerns about the process used to increase the fees. ACT said that network operators that are members of ACT may have to either absorb the cost or pass the cost of the verification on to consumers. ALSO READ: Home Affairs clears 250 000 ID backlog in one month
Daily Maverick
09-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Small business, big problems — SA's entrepreneurs still face uphill battle
In post-pandemic South Africa, the phrase 'small business is the backbone of the economy' has become something of a national mantra. Small and medium enterprises account for more than 60% of jobs and roughly 40% of GDP, according to estimates from Stats SA and the Treasury, yet continue to face regulatory bottlenecks, financial exclusion and bureaucratic roadblocks that larger corporates are typically better equipped to manage. Business Maverick's latest webinar, 'Small Business, Big Problems: What Government Could Be Doing', brought together Business Maverick's editor, Neesa Moodley, Sourcefin CEO Joshua Kadish and Regent Business School's academic dean, Dr Shahiem Patel, for a candid conversation on why South Africa's entrepreneurs still face an uphill battle — and what could actually unlock progress. Forget the pitch deck: start anyway 'There's a shift,' said Patel, referring to the changes in the small-to-medium business environment in South Africa. 'You don't really need capital to launch a business. You need finance to scale a business.' This mindset shift — from funding as a prerequisite to funding as a growth tool — was echoed throughout the session. Entrepreneurs today launch Instagram stores and TikTok businesses in under an hour. What they need, increasingly, is not startup capital, but scale capital, according to Patel. Kadish agreed: 'Traditional banks in South Africa base credit decisions on past performance, collateral and tax compliance. But early-stage SMEs [small and medium enterprises] don't tick those boxes. What they need is forward-looking credit.' The irony? The very regulations designed to protect consumers are choking the businesses meant to employ them. 'It's not just red tape,' noted Moodley. 'It's the weight of compliance — especially when you're a one-person startup juggling five roles.' Death by paperwork Kadish outlined an inhibiting bureaucracy where something as basic as opening a bank account requires repeated Fica (Financial Intelligence Centre Act) submissions, even across the same financial group, causing needless hurdles for small businesses looking to enter the market. 'There's no central repository,' he noted of the process required for the verification of a business and the personal documentation required for everything from opening a bank account to lines of credit. 'You Fica yourself 14 times for 14 institutions. And even then, it takes a week to open a transactional account.' And compliance hurdles don't end there. New policies — like the Ultimate Beneficial Ownership filing regimen — threaten deregistration for startups unaware of such technicalities. Tax complexity, uncertainty about the Protection of Personal Information Act, and ambiguous VAT obligations compound the confusion. 'We need to stop seeing regulation as an inhibitor,' said Patel. 'It can be an enabler — if implemented accessibly.' Both speakers emphasised the need for a single digital compliance portal — a centralised, Application Programming Interface-enabled interface for the SA Revenue Service; Companies and Intellectual Property Commission; Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act; Unemployment Insurance Fund, and others. The technology, they insisted, already exists. What's missing is the political will — and a user manual. A hurdle for the informal sector When asked about support for the informal sector, where millions of rands move in daily trade without tax filings, documentation, or even bank accounts, Kadish was blunt. 'Without documentation, you're confined to the informal sector,' said Kadish. 'You'll never really graduate.' The post-Covid boom in contactless payments (via tools like Yoco or SnapScan) offers new data trails — but even these haven't brought the informal economy fully into the funding fold. 'Financial institutions have long treated informal trade as no-go zones,' explained Kadish. 'That's slowly changing. But we need tailored products, not copy-paste corporate credit models.' Patel added that policy incentives, like VAT breaks or employment-linked tax deferrals, could catalyse formalisation without suffocating early-stage ventures. Red tape and repayment Public procurement — a potential growth engine for SMEs — has its own catch-22. 'To do business with the government, you often need a performance guarantee. But no one wants to issue those to small businesses,' explained Kadish. 'It's the same cycle: no track record, no credit; no credit, no growth.' 'The education gap is real,' said Patel. 'So is the mentorship gap. We need layered support — formal, informal, and from peers.' Lessons from Singapore In his closing remarks, Kadish offered a bold suggestion: learn from Singapore, long held as a symbol of fostering economic development, particularly small businesses and services in the financial sector. 'Early-stage startups there pay no tax on their first $250,000 in income,' he said. 'Investors also pay no capital gains tax, provided they invest early. And the government will match private investment rand-for-rand.' Rather than handing out grants with minimal repayment pressure — often abused and never recovered — Kadish proposed co-investment models, tax incentives and tighter public-private partnerships that reward both performance and transparency. South Africa's current grant schemes, by contrast, often suffer from weak repayment enforcement, limited milestone tracking and low auditability. 'Let the government earn upside too,' he argued. 'Let's get creative with how we fund risk.' Shepherding from incubators to ecosystems Patel warned against romanticising incubators or JSE boardroom mentorships as panaceas to the real challenges that those starting businesses really face. 'Executives aren't entrepreneurs,' noted Patel. 'They have different skill sets — and while their advice can be valuable, it's not always informed by the daily triage of early-stage entrepreneurship.' He highlighted initiatives at Regent Business School like the RED (Regent Enterprise Development) Hub, where students blend theory, practice and entrepreneurship into job-making ventures. Projects like biowaste-to-energy converters and automated irrigation rigs are already showing promise. The real ask of regulation: enabling, not overreach If there was one message from both speakers, it was this: the government must enable, not entangle. Patel put it plainly: 'We need electricity. Roads. Data access that's not the most expensive in the world. Regulation that protects, not paralyses.' Kadish agreed, offering a crucial perspective on the importance of basic infrastructure in enabling an environment that facilitates business development, contrasting South Africa with a country in a much more challenging situation. 'Even in Ukraine, under bombardment, the trains run. The lights stay on. Here, it often feels like war just trying to keep your bakery open,' he said. 'We talk about SMEs being critical,' concluded Moodley. 'But until support becomes accessible at scale, it's just talk.' For a country that claims SMEs are the future, South Africa has a long way to go in making that future viable. DM
The Citizen
30-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
The actual cost of non-compliance with Fica
'Any accountable institution, whether in property, legal, crypto or lending, is at risk if compliance lapses occur.' In the past 18 months, institutions in banking, legal, and financial services have faced steep penalties for non-compliance with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica). Some South African commercial banks have been sanctioned with fines ranging from R7.7 million to more than R50 million. These are not outliers, they reflect a clear regulatory shift toward stricter enforcement. Sameer Kumandan, MD of SearchWorks360, said that while much has been said about Fica obligations, less attention is paid to what happens when businesses fall short. 'The penalties are not limited to financial institutions. Any accountable institution, whether in property, legal, crypto or lending, is at risk if compliance lapses occur.' ALSO READ: FSCA fines 3 financial services providers R1.2 million for Fica non-compliance How Fica penalties are determined He said the type of punishment depends on the severity of the violation. Regulators apply a structured framework that considers both mandatory and discretionary factors. 'These include the nature, duration, seriousness and extent of the contravention, as well as whether the conduct was intentional, reckless or negligent. 'The regulator will also assess whether the entity gained any financial or commercial benefit from the non-compliance and if there was any remedial action taken once the issue was identified.' A business's compliance history matters too. Institutions with prior contraventions or those seen as repeat offenders can expect harsher sanctions, as can those found to have obstructed investigations or withheld key information. Fica sanctions Kumandan said sanctions range from a written caution or public reprimand to a remediation directive, restriction or suspension of business activities, and administrative fines of up to R10 million for individuals and R50 million for companies. For more serious breaches, particularly those involving an element of intent, criminal charges may be brought, with potential fines of up to R100 million or imprisonment up to 15 years. Senior managers, directors and employees involved in the breach may be held personally liable. ALSO READ: Prudential authority fines Absa R10 million for FICA non-compliance Common non-compliance issues 'Most Fica penalties stem from recurring failures such as inadequate or generic risk management and compliance programmes (RMCPs), poor customer due diligence, incomplete recordkeeping, failure to submit reports like cash threshold reports and insufficient training,' said Kumandan. 'These are not technicalities – they are central to the act and form the basis of most enforcement actions. In one case, a legal firm was fined R7.7 million for failing to implement an RMCP or train its staff. 'A financial services provider was penalised for failing to report suspicious transactions in a timely manner. These are the kinds of 'basic' oversights that now carry serious consequences.' The pressure is industry-wide He added that the uptick in enforcement isn't limited to large financial institutions. In recent months, law firms, insurers, financial advisers and crypto platforms have all faced enforcement actions. 'Fica applies across sectors and smaller firms are not immune. If you deal with money, you are accountable.' Avoiding penalties requires more than good intentions Fortunately, regulated entities have access to automated compliance platforms that facilitate the prevention of fraud, money laundering and regulatory breaches. He said these tools reduce manual oversight, simplify regulatory reporting and ensure Popia-compliant data handling. They also automate Know Your Customer (KYC)/Know Your Business (KYB) verification processes and can generate suspicious transaction and compliance reports as requested by regulators. 'One of the big selling points of automating Fica compliance is ongoing monitoring. Often, a business will conduct its due diligence at the start of a relationship with a client, only for that client to engage in illicit and illegal activities down the line. 'Ongoing monitoring helps accountable institutions to assess and manage risks continuously, during the onboarding process and throughout the business relationship. 'By tracking client profiles daily, accountable organisations keep tabs on all transactions as they happen and they are alerted to any changes that might indicate a compliance risk.' NOW READ: The risks of doing business with politically exposed persons
