Through its Innovation Hub, the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG), aims to provide  resources to fintechs and other financial sector innovators to promote responsible financial sector innovation. The IFWG Innovation Hub was launched earlier this year to respond to changes in the financial sector driven by financial technology (fintech) and to promote responsible innovation in the sector. The Innovation Hub aims to support the...

Court Papers filed in the United States reveal that a host of Africa’s former political leaders and their families are allegedly stashing their cash in South Africa’s property market, once again highlighting the importance of due diligence. “The country’s status as Africa’s most sophisticated financial hub and its low prosecution rate are enabling politically exposed persons to hide vast amounts of money in real estate,” a February...

The new Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) compliance checklist, which came into effect on 1 January 2020, requires all companies (except CCs) to complete a 24-question compliance list along with their annual returns. Companies are required to indicate if they complied with a particular section during the previous calendar year but only allows for yes/no answers and makes no provision for explained responses. Failure to...

Requirements regarding outsourcing by an insurer are comprehensively set out in the Prudential Standard GOI 5 and one would think it is simple, but is it? Adv Freddie Eilers, MD of Assent Legal, penned this article for Cover magazine’s October edition. Many insurers outsource material and non-material business activities to providers for various reasons. Some of these reasons include an opportunity for Insurers to have access to expert...

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has imposed an administrative penalty of R1.5 billion on Steinhoff under Section 81 of the FMA 2012 – the highest penalty to date issued by the authority. In a news release on its website, the FSCA said it noted Steinhoff’s current financial position and in order to avoid penalising innocent Steinhoff shareholders further, in recognition of the fraud perpetrated on the Steinhoff Group by former...

Maladministration, poor governance and corruption have had a devastating effect on the country’s ailing state-owned enterprises (SOEs), leaving them facing extensive financial difficulties. Business Day recently reported that financial institutions may approach the Constitutional Court if government forces pension funds to invest in bankrupt state-owned enterprises. This followed a proposal in the ANC election manifesto that government...