Money or Value Transfer Services and the regulator

In the past they were known as Money Transfer Services and this was mainly associated with companies that engaged in cross-border transfer of funds in foreign currency, for eg Western Union, MasterCurrency, Mama Money, Mukhuru, etc.

With the recent amendments to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act in 2022/23, and additional element was added - Value transfer services. This gave us what is now known as MVTS providers which covers a much larger contingent of businesses (more on MVTS in a later post).

It is important to note that this concept is not unique to South Africa, and is in fact specifically covered in the FATF recommendations and other global anti financial crime standards. Below as a link to a web-article on the regulatory views in the US as it pertains to MVTS (in this particular case money) and what the AML expectations relating to such entities are - as well as the consequences of non-compliance.

$4.2 Million AML Penalty for Wise US Highlights Growing Regulatory Scrutiny - Fincrime Central