The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has published a user guide explaining how accountable institutions must submit information about their geographic locations on goAML to comply with Directive 10.
Directive 10 requires specified accountable institutions to provide information about their head offices, branches, subsidiary head offices, and subsidiary branches, including locations inside and outside South Africa.
The guide, dated 13 October 2026, sets out procedures for creating delegated organisations for branches and subsidiaries, linking locations already registered separately to head-office profiles, and consolidating registrations created through an alternative process. It also explains the supporting documents and email addresses required for location registrations.
Directive 10 took effect when it was published in the Government Gazette on 31 July 2026.
Accountable institutions covered by the directive and already registered with the FIC must submit the required geographic information by 29 October 2026. Thereafter, they must maintain the information by updating it within 90 days of any change. Institutions registering after the directive took effect must provide the required geographic information when registering.
The directive applies to legal practitioners, certain trust and company service providers, estate agents, gambling institutions, specified credit providers, the South African Postbank, high-value goods dealers, the South African Mint Company, and crypto asset service providers. Banks, mutual banks, and co-operative bank credit providers are excluded from the credit-provider category covered by the directive.
Read: FIC clarifies geographic reporting rules in final Directive 10
Branches and subsidiaries are linked through Org IDs
The guide says an accountable institution may submit information about a branch or subsidiary by creating a new “delegated organisation” under its existing head-office registration on goAML. Creating a delegated organisation generates a goAML organisation identity number, or Org ID, for that location.
Submitting geographic information about a branch or subsidiary does not constitute registering it as a separate accountable institution. Regulatory reporting functionality will not be enabled for locations submitted for Directive 10 purposes. The accountable institution remains responsible for submitting regulatory reports through its existing goAML registration, and the process does not change how those reports must be submitted.
An institution already registered on goAML must add its geographic information to its existing registration. The compliance officer or goAML administration user must log in to the registration that will serve as the head-office profile because selecting “Create New Delegating Organisation” will create and delegate the new location beneath the profile into which the user is logged.
The user must then select “Active Organisations” from the administration menu and create a new delegated organisation for the relevant branch or subsidiary. The delegation structure enables users under the head-office profile to view and maintain the location’s information without separate user credentials being created for each branch or subsidiary.
After the delegated organisation has been created, the FIC will finalise or reject the change or new registration. If the FIC finalises it, the resulting Org ID will be displayed under “Active Organisations” in the head-office profile.
Unique email addresses needed for location registrations
goAML does not permit the same email address to be used across multiple user or accountable-institution profiles. The compliance officer should therefore provide a unique email address for each branch registration.
If an institution’s email service supports aliases, it may add identifiers such as “+1” or “+2” before the “@” symbol. This allows system-generated notifications and authentication messages sent to apparently different addresses to be delivered to the same mailbox. Institutions must confirm that their email platforms support this functionality.
The FIC says institutions that can create unique email addresses should use them instead. Email aliases should be considered only if separate addresses cannot be created and the use of aliases is compatible with the institution’s operational requirements.
Locations can be registered separately and later consolidated
The guide also describes an alternative route under which branches or subsidiaries may initially be registered on goAML as “new reporting institutions”. This allows employees at the respective locations to complete the registration process for their branches or subsidiaries.
The location’s name must distinguish it from existing registrations. The FIC warns that entering the same name as an existing accountable-institution registration may create a duplicate, which could be rejected during verification.
After a registration has been submitted, goAML generates a registration reference number, and the application remains subject to the FIC’s verification process. Once confirmation has been received that all the branches and subsidiaries have been registered successfully, the institution may ask the FIC to consolidate the resulting Org IDs by delegating the registrations to the head-office profile.
Although the initial process uses the “new reporting institution” registration route, the guide provides for the resulting Org IDs to be consolidated and delegated to the head-office profile.
Existing branch registrations must be amended
The guide also deals with a branch or subsidiary that is already registered separately on goAML but is not a separate legal person and is therefore not an accountable institution in its own right.
In these circumstances, the existing registration must be amended and linked to the applicable head-office registration as a “geolocation office”. Before starting the change request, the user must have the Org ID of the accountable institution’s head office.
The compliance officer or administration user must change the organisation’s business type to “Geolocation office” under the applicable Schedule 1 item and enter the head office’s Org ID in the delegation section. The user must then submit a change request to the FIC for verification and processing.
Once the FIC has approved the request, the registration will reflect the branch or subsidiary as a geolocation office linked to the accountable institution’s head-office registration.
Supporting documents must be uploaded
The guide says the compliance officer appointed under section 42A of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) should be recorded as the contact person for each branch.
When a new branch or subsidiary is submitted, a clear copy of the compliance officer’s identity document and a signed authorisation letter on the institution’s letterhead must be uploaded. The letter must confirm that the registration relates to the identified branch or subsidiary and that the person completing the registration is authorised to act for the accountable institution.
When an existing registration is converted into a geolocation office, a signed authorisation letter must confirm that the registration relates to a branch or subsidiary and authorise its delegation to the head-office profile.
The information submitted must be accurate, complete, and kept up to date. Institutions with more than one geographic location must provide information about all those locations when registering and whenever their geographic information changes.
Click here to download the user guide.
