South Africa: corporate bank account opening

Obtain the corporate customer's registration, governing documents, addresses and business details. The CIPC registry guide explains disclosure records and filed company information. Use home-country records for a foreign company and local registration where applicable.

Apply section 21B's control enquiries

Establish the ownership and control structure, then identify and take reasonable measures to verify beneficial owners. Section 21B works through controlling ownership, control by other means and the senior-management fallback. It does not impose a blanket statutory 25% test for every corporate customer; apply the bank's documented risk-based measures to the structure.

Obtain shareholder and control records for relevant corporate layers. Verify the person acting for the customer and their authority, retaining the account resolution, mandate or power of attorney.

Funding and the opening decision

Under section 21A, establish the relationship's purpose, nature and expected source of funds. Obtain the relevant sale, investment or financing documents where needed to substantiate the proposed transactions. Apply the enhanced and prominent-person measures required by the Act and the bank's Risk Management and Compliance Programme, and resolve sanctions findings.

Section 21E restricts establishing or continuing a relationship where required CDD cannot be performed and requires consideration of section 29 reporting. Keep the review and decision evidence.

Conduct ongoing CDD under section 21C. Section 23 provides the record-retention requirements, ordinarily at least five years from the relevant relationship or transaction event.