A recent Financial Services Tribunal decision, handed down on 28 October 2024 in the matter Seth Bouah v Sanlam Umbrella Provident Fund and Others with Case No: PFA29/2024, confirmed that the Pension Funds Adjudicator (OPFA) lacks jurisdiction to entertain unapproved disability benefit claims underwritten by the insurer.

The main issue which was under re-consideration was

The Financial Services Tribunal has brought much-needed clarity to the position of statements made under section 112(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (CPA) and the implication under section 37D of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (PFA). On 23 October 2024, the FST in the case of Nyathi South Africa (Pty) Ltd v

The High Court in South African Retirement Annuity Fund v Pension Funds Adjudicator and Another clarified that the twelve-month period within which funds are to trace dependants commences to run from the date on which the fund is notified of the death of the member and not on the date of death of the member.

Since 2020, most retirement funds have been faced with a situation where participating employers have failed to comply with section 13A of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (PFA), by either underpaying employer or member contributions or not paying at all. The non-payment of contributions attracts late payment interest in terms of section 13(7) of

The Constitutional Court has provided much needed certainty to the retirement fund industry following the surprising April 2022 judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Municipal Employees Pension Fund & Another v Pandelani Midas Mudau and Another.

On 02 August 2023, the Constitutional Court overturned the SCA judgment. The facts of the matter

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

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 

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

The Pension Funds Act, 1956 (“PFA”) is the primary legislation regulating retirement funds. Section 30A of the PFA provides that any person who has a complaint as defined in section 1 “may lodge a written complaint with the retirement fund for consideration by the board, which must be properly considered and responded