New legislation will require banks to be even stricter about politically influential clients THE news that all of SA’s big four banks have closed the accounts of the Gupta family and their businesses, or put them on notice for closure, has prompted a storm of debate. Can banks simply cut off clients they deem to be high risk — or too high profile?Perhaps most outraged was the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), which pronounced in a press release that “the unprincipled and unaccountable banks have no moral authority to moralise on the Gupta issue”. It accuses the banks of ostracising the Gupta businesses for “narrow political ends” without considering the implications for workers.Yet not only do banks have the right to decline to do business with anyone they deem undesirable, as long as they don’t breach the constitution; they are required to be particularly vigilant about high-risk clients, and new draft legislation proposes to make that requirement even more binding.A consultant...

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