Industry

Risk and compliance software for pension funds and administrators in Zambia

Pension schemes and their administrators in Zambia are regulated by the Pensions and Insurance Authority under the Pension Scheme Regulation Act, alongside the statutory scheme run by NAPSA, and they carry anti-money laundering obligations because benefit payments move money to members and beneficiaries. That combination means periodic contribution and investment returns, due diligence on members and beneficiaries before payout, monitoring of investment limits, protection of member data under the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021, and handling of member complaints.

ERMAML, the Ontech Risk & Compliance Suite, prepares return layouts from the live contribution register, screens members and beneficiaries for sanctions and PEP status before benefits are paid, tracks investment risk against regulatory limits as key risk indicators, applies anomaly detection to payment patterns and beneficiary changes, encrypts member PII, and manages complaints as cases with service-level tracking.

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Key capabilities

NAPSA and PIA return preparation

Contribution and investment return layouts are formatted from the live register rather than assembled by hand.

Member and beneficiary due diligence

Continuous screening of members and beneficiaries against sanctions and PEP lists, applied before benefit payments are released.

Investment-risk indicators

Asset allocation and regulatory limits are tracked live as key risk indicators with breach alerts, instead of monthly reconciliation.

Beneficiary fraud detection

Anomaly detection over payment patterns and beneficiary changes, including dormant accounts that suddenly become active.

Member data protection

Column-level encryption of member PII, a retention policy and a right-to-erasure workflow aligned to the Data Protection Act.

Complaints as cases

Member complaints are logged as cases with owners, SLAs and escalation, so conduct issues are tracked to closure.

Registry verification

Members and beneficiaries are verified against the NRC registry and corporate sponsors against PACRA and ZRA.

How it works

The contribution register and investment records are connected during discovery.
Members and beneficiaries are back-loaded and screened to establish a sanctions and PEP baseline.
Benefit payments pass through the screening gate, and anomalies in payment patterns raise alerts.
Investment allocations are monitored against limits configured as indicators.
Complaints and incidents are worked as cases with maker-checker review and SLA tracking.
Returns to the PIA and NAPSA and board reports are produced from the same data.

Benefits

Payout controls that are pre-payment

Screening and anomaly detection run before a benefit is released, not after a loss is discovered.

Limits monitored continuously

Allocation drift is visible as it happens rather than at the monthly reconciliation.

Member data handled to the statute

Encryption, retention and erasure workflows give the trustees evidence of Data Protection Act compliance.

Returns without the rebuild

Contribution and investment returns come from the register the administrator already maintains.

Who it is for

Pension fund administrators and trustees regulated by the PIA.
Compliance officers responsible for member due diligence and FIC reporting on benefit payments.
Investment and risk managers monitoring allocation limits.
Data protection officers accountable for member records.

Zambia-specific considerations

Occupational and private pension schemes in Zambia are regulated by the PIA under the Pension Scheme Regulation Act, while NAPSA administers the statutory national scheme; contributing employers and administrators report to both. ERMAML's compliance register carries the obligations for each and a filing calendar for their returns.

Benefit payments are a point where identity and beneficiary fraud occur, and where anti-money laundering screening applies. Verifying beneficiaries against the NRC registry and screening every payout against sanctions and PEP lists closes that gap without slowing legitimate payments.

How ERMAML addresses this

Continuous screening of members at payout

Sanctions and PEP screening runs against the member and beneficiary book on a schedule and again before each benefit payment.

Investment limits as live indicators

Regulatory and policy limits are configured as KRIs with thresholds, so the risk function is alerted the day an allocation drifts.

Data protection built into the record

PII columns are encrypted, retention is policy-driven, and erasure requests are handled through an audited workflow.

Frequently asked questions

Who regulates pension funds in Zambia?

The Pensions and Insurance Authority regulates occupational and private pension schemes and their administrators under the Pension Scheme Regulation Act. NAPSA administers the statutory national pension scheme. Both receive periodic returns from the entities they oversee.

Do pension administrators have AML obligations?

Yes. Benefit payments move money to members and beneficiaries, so administrators perform due diligence, screen payees against sanctions and PEP lists, and report suspicious activity to the Financial Intelligence Centre in the same way as other reporting entities.

How does ERMAML detect beneficiary fraud?

Anomaly detection runs over payment patterns and beneficiary changes, flagging unusual events such as a dormant account reactivating or a beneficiary change shortly before a payout. Flagged events become cases for review under maker-checker control.

Can it monitor investment limits?

Asset allocation and regulatory limits are configured as key risk indicators with thresholds. The platform compares the live allocation against them and alerts the owner when a limit is approached or breached.

How is member data protected?

Member PII is encrypted at column level, retention periods are set by policy, and right-to-erasure requests are processed through an audited workflow, in line with the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021. Hosting is in Lusaka at Infratel's Tier III facility.

Sources

See ERMAML on your own data

Request a demo with Ontech Solutions in Lusaka and see sanctions screening, KYC, transaction monitoring, goAML reporting and the risk register working together in one platform.