Payments glossary
AML (anti-money laundering)
AML (anti-money laundering) is the body of law and controls that stops criminals passing illicit funds off as legitimate business. For payment providers it means verifying customers, monitoring transactions for suspicious patterns, and reporting suspicious activity to the authorities.
How money laundering touches payment systems
Launderers look for businesses where dirty money can blend into normal turnover: inflated sales, fictitious refunds, or transaction laundering - processing one business's sales through another, innocent-looking merchant account. Payment providers sit exactly where this becomes visible, which is why the law treats them as gatekeepers rather than bystanders.
What AML looks like in practice
Three pillars. First, customer due diligence: KYC at onboarding establishes who the merchant is and who owns it. Second, ongoing monitoring: transaction patterns are watched for behaviour that does not fit the business - sudden volume spikes, refund ratios that make no commercial sense, activity mismatched to the declared trade. Third, reporting: suspicious transactions must be reported to the financial intelligence authorities, and South African anti-money-laundering legislation designates financial services businesses as accountable institutions with exactly these duties.
What it means for merchants
Expect questions - about unusual growth, a new product line, a change in average transaction size - and expect them to recur, not just at sign-up. This is not bureaucracy for its own sake: a provider that skips AML eventually loses its banking relationships, and every merchant on its books loses their payment rails with it. Answering quickly, with documents, keeps your account moving.
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