InTouch screens clients ten hours before regulator alert

A South African compliance platform re-screened its clients’ entire books against Friday’s UN sanctions amendments at 06:02, beating the Financial Intelligence Centre’s (FIC) own sanctions alert by almost ten hours. The re-screening took place on Friday, 16 October 2026, meaning accountable institutions began their workday with the full client base already checked against that morning’s Targeted Financial Sanctions changes.

The FIC’s update email was sent at 15:52, nine hours and fifty minutes after InTouch’s automated daily sync detected the amendments and re-screened every client.

The changes comprised four amendments to UN Security Council sanctions entries, covering the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida terrorist lists as well as the North Korea sanctions regime.

At 06:02 SAST, InTouch sent each institution an email and an in-platform notification with a full report, detailing what changed on the list, how many clients were screened, and whether any were flagged.

Under section 26A of the FIC Act, a UN designation takes effect in South Africa the moment it is adopted, and institutions must screen clients at onboarding, when transacting, and whenever the list is updated. Section 28A(3), as amplified by the FIC’s Public Compliance Communication 44A, reinforces this duty by expressly requiring screening at onboarding, during transactions, and each time the sanctions list is refreshed.

Karl Nimmo, founder of InTouch, said, “I am incredibly proud of the team. On Friday our clients were greeted with a full screening of their entire client base almost ten hours before the regulator’s email went out.”

Friday was not a one-off. Because InTouch syncs the FIC and UN lists early every morning, its reports have reached clients before the FIC’s own alert on every list update to date. On 19 August 2026, the lead was about 14 hours.

The InTouch platform processes tens of thousands of verifications a day. Continuous TFS Screening is available through the InTouch web portal, a REST API, and inside Iress Xplan, with a 14-day free trial at https://portal.intouch.io/explore/continuous-tfs-screening.