Desiree Reddy (ZA)

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The number of “money mule” scams i.e. where criminals approach bank customers with requests to have funds (often the proceeds of crime) paid into their accounts and often offer them a reward for the use of the account, is unfortunately on the rise. In a press release dated 10 July 2023, the FSCA has warned…

The exemption of Banks in respect of financially sophisticated and high-wealth corporate clients, referred to as the Merchant Banking Exemption (BN 103 of 2004), was extended by FAIS Notice 35 of 2023 until 30 June 2025.

The clients covered under the Exemption include other banks, central banks, insurers (life and non-life insurers), asset managers who…

On 19 October 2022, the FSCA published the final Declaration of a Crypto Asset as a Financial Product (Declaration) under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2003 (FAIS Act) – see detail here.

Together with a policy document setting out the thinking behind the Declaration, and an overview of…

On 18 April 2023, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority published its first Regulatory Actions Report,  covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. The Report highlights enforcement action taken during the reporting period, with a view to not only deterring unlawful conduct, but also to create awareness of regulatory requirements.

Some of the…

In an unfortunate, but expected turn of events, global money-laundering and terrorist-financing watchdog – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – announced on Friday 24 February that it has added South Africa to its “grey” list – as a jurisdiction under increased monitoring.

What does this mean, how did we get here, and…

Following on from our earlier blog on the declaration of crypto assets as financial products under the FAIS Act (the Declaration) we have received numerous queries on the transitional arrangements relevant to the new licensing regime, and the impact of the Declaration on crypto asset derivatives. 

Transitional arrangements 

Specific concerns have been raised regarding whether…

In general notice 1350 of 2022, effective as of 19 October 2022, the FSCA has formally declared a crypto asset as a financial product under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002.  

The declaration marks the first step in crypto asset regulation, in South Africa, and follows a draft declaration published in 2020 …

The Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) has published a new blog on Open Finance, noting that South African regulatory authorities have started looking at open finance as it relates to their respective mandates.

What is open finance? The premise of “open finance” is to give customers the ability to access and share their own…

In November 2020, the FSCA released a draft declaration to include crypto assets as ‘financial products’ under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002.  The effect of the draft declaration, once made final, would be that any person providing advice or intermediary services in relation to crypto assets would need to be licensed as…