South Africa and global insurance, financial institutions, banking and general law know–how
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…
There has been considerable media attention over the last few weeks on account closures by banks. Although there are no statutory requirements in this regard (the Banks Act, 1990 for example, is silent on the issue of account closures), it is not the case that a bank has an unfettered discretion regarding account closures. An…
In recognition of the increase in the adoption of digital channels by financial consumers, in late 2021 the FSCA published a Digital Banking Research Report on the state of digital banking activities in South Africa. The term “digital banking” refers to the digitisation of traditional banking services in order to more efficiently deliver financial services…
In a welcomed development, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority has established a YouTube channel (https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCh3dQcOQAzdptNTKFQvB7HQ/about). The channel is a useful resource and provides valuable insight as to the FSCA’s stance on certain issues. Check out their latest videos:
How to establish a FAIS compliance function: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlnMYmwlj1Y
How the FSCA complies to PAIA: https://youtu.be/TdUUOEckfB0…
In a draft declaration issued on 20 November 2020, the FSCA proposed to include crypto assets as a category of financial product under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (“FAIS”). We wrote about this previously, here.
Speaking to the draft declaration in a September 2021 media briefing, Ms Olaotse…
Anyone embarking on a FAIS process to debar a financial service provider or representative would do well to read a recent Financial Services Tribunal decision setting out what constitutes a lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair process. The matter is Mothei v Advicecube (FSP35/20).
The decision sets out the statutory and regulatory basis for debarment…
