Product · Dominion
Know who actually controls an entity — not just who owns it on paper. Dominion maps, verifies and monitors ultimate beneficial ownership structures — built for South Africa.
The problem
The regulator requires accountable institutions to identify and verify ultimate beneficial owners. The challenge is that control isn’t always obvious. It can sit with trustees, executive directors, nominees, beneficiaries and others who influence decisions without owning a significant share of an organisation.
South Africa’s FATF grey listing accelerated beneficial ownership reform. Amendments to the FIC Act and the FIC’s PCC 59 guidance introduced new obligations for accountable institutions.
Many organisations still manage UBO compliance through spreadsheets, PDFs, email chains and manual reviews. The result is inconsistent decisions, unnecessary administration and greater regulatory risk.
The challenge
There’s no standardised way to administer UBO in South Africa. So we built the standard. Dominion gives compliance teams the structure, workflow and evidence trail to turn UBO from an interpretation exercise into a repeatable, defensible process.
Explore the platformThe solution
The definitive UBO administration platform for South African compliance teams. Dominion maps any ownership structure, identifies who really controls it, and manages verification, risk scoring and re-screening — with an audit trail that answers the regulator before they ask.
Book a DemoHow it works
From building the ownership tree to ongoing re-screening, Dominion covers every step PCC 59 compliance expects — end to end.
01
Map the ownership tree, then let Dominion surface the people of interest: those who control the entity, whatever their shareholding. Invite the entity to capture its own structure to speed it up.
02
Tell Dominion the entity type — trust, company or individual — and it sets out the exact verifications you need, each validated against Home Affairs, CIPC or the Master of the High Court.
03
Standardised, weighted questions score each entity from low to intolerable — using criteria you set, like country, tax residency and source of funds.
04
High and intolerable-risk entities trigger deeper review — with reviewer, approver and compliance-officer sign-off before any classification is locked. → See AML & PEP screening
05
Risk doesn’t stand still. Re-screen high-risk entities every six months, medium yearly, low every two years — automatically flagged when due.
06
Generate beneficial ownership reporting for any structure, with the full audit trail behind every decision ready to hand a regulator.
Most tools show ownership. Dominion evaluates shareholding, relationship types and control paths to surface who actually influences the entity — whatever their stake.
Every SA entity type — companies, trusts, retirement funds, stokvels, SOEs — with its required documents and validations mapped. Start structured, not from scratch.
Once a structure is captured and validated, it’s there for next time. The first review takes effort; the second builds on it.
Send a secure link and let the entity capture its own structure. Your team reviews, validates and progresses — instead of typing.
Dominion has been built around the realities of South African ownership structures. The platform already understands the relationships, documentation requirements and validation processes for each entity type.
Most systems show ownership. Dominion calculates control.
The platform identifies the people who genuinely influence decisions — not just those who appear highest in the hierarchy.
Previous structures, validations and decisions can be reused, reducing the administrative burden over time.
Different analysts shouldn’t reach different conclusions from the same ownership structure.
Dominion standardises the process so UBO decisions are repeatable, defensible and auditable.
The CIPC beneficial ownership register
The Companies Act requires South African companies to file beneficial ownership information with the CIPC, identifying individuals who hold a direct or indirect beneficial interest of 5% or more.
If your question is about validating company records or director data, that sits with Business Verification. Dominion handles what comes next: mapping, verifying, and managing the ownership and control structures behind the entities you’ve verified.
Use Business Verification to access company records and verify corporate identities against authoritative sources.
Explore Business VerificationDominion is the complete UBO administration platform for identifying, verifying, assessing and monitoring beneficial ownership across the entire compliance lifecycle.
Book a DemoReusable capability
Run Dominion on its own as a complete UBO platform — or connect it to the Contactable IIP and orchestrate identity, screening and verification across the whole journey. Built on the platform; yours to deploy either way.
UBO compliance raises real questions. These are the ones we hear most from compliance and risk teams in South Africa.
Manual UBO processes are slow, inconsistent, and hard to defend under scrutiny. Dominion automates verification at every node, applies standardised risk scoring, and produces an audit trail your compliance team can stand behind.
PCC 59 is the FIC’s guidance on the FIC Act’s beneficial-ownership obligations. It expects accountable institutions to identify and verify the ultimate beneficial owners of the legal entities they work with — down to the natural persons with ownership or control. Dominion is purpose-built for exactly that.
Yes. Dominion is modular and built to integrate with existing compliance and onboarding infrastructure. It extends what you have — it doesn’t require you to replace it.
A UBO check captures a point in time. Dominion covers the full lifecycle: tree creation, node verification, risk classification, enhanced due diligence for outliers, and ongoing re-screening. It’s a managed compliance process, not a single check.
Trusts are a common complexity in South African UBO structures. Dominion validates trust documents and beneficiaries as part of the same workflow — no separate process or manual workaround required.
Dominion is built for FATF, FICA, and PCC 59 compliance in South Africa, with GLEIF integration covering global legal entities. It’s designed to keep pace with regulatory change — not fall behind it.
Dominion’s ongoing due diligence module lets you re-screen any UBO tree at a point in time. Ownership structures change — Dominion ensures your records reflect reality, not what was declared at onboarding.
Our team can walk through your specific setup.
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Dominion gives you verified ownership structures, automated risk scoring, and an audit trail that holds under scrutiny.