Financial services compliance in South Africa
Financial services providers, brokers, advisers, credit providers and the firms that support them.
Laws that usually apply
Providers and representatives need authorisation, fit and proper status and proper disclosure and record-keeping.
Accountable institutions must identify clients, keep records, report and run a risk-based programme.
Credit providers usually have to register and follow the rules on affordability, disclosure and collections.
You process financial and identity information, so security and operator contracts matter.
The Act sets out cyber offences and reporting duties that touch how you handle incidents.
Regulated financial institutions may be subject to the Joint Standards on IT governance and cyber resilience. Check whether you are in scope.
Insurers and insurance groups are licensed and supervised under it, with fit and proper, governance and reporting requirements.
Employers must pay retirement fund contributions within seven days after month-end, and funds are supervised by the FSCA.
Covers market infrastructure and prohibits insider trading and other market abuse.
Payment providers and system operators answer to the SARB and PASA, with cyber and settlement requirements.
Sets up the twin peaks structure of the Prudential Authority and the FSCA.
Providing financial services in relation to crypto assets needs an FSP licence or appointment as a representative.
Regulates deposit-taking institutions under the Prudential Authority.
Regulates unit trusts and similar schemes under the FSCA.
The financial sector has its own B-BBEE code, which clients and partners often ask about.
King IV is widely used as the governance reference for larger and listed entities.
Templates you will probably need
What customers, tenders and funders often ask to see
- FSP licence and FICA registration details
- Information Officer registration
- Data breach and incident response plan
- Operator agreements with your service providers
- B-BBEE certificate
Prudential rules, conduct standards issued by the regulators and product-specific requirements are outside our self-assessments.
How ComplianceDesk helps
- Take the self-assessments above and see your gaps, free and without an account.
- Save a result to your organisation and each gap becomes a task with an owner and a due date.
- Fill in a template, save it to your Policy Library and track who has acknowledged it.
- Choose the filing dates that apply on the compliance calendar and get an email before each one.
Questions
Does using ComplianceDesk make us compliant?
No. The self-assessments show where you have gaps against each law and give you tasks, templates and reminders to close them. Compliance depends on what you actually do, and the content is a guide that an attorney should review before you rely on it.
Can I try the self-assessments without an account?
Yes. Every self-assessment is free to take, and your answers stay in your browser until you choose to save a result to an organisation.
Track it all in one place
ComplianceDesk turns each law into controls with owners, due dates and evidence.