FAIS Circular 20 contains a reminder to FSPs regarding what changes in the FSP need to be conveyed to the Registrar within 15 days.
Section 8(10)(a)(ii) of the FAIS Act states: “Where a provider is a corporate or unincorporated body, a trust or a partnership, the provider must, within 15 days of the appointment of a new director, member, trustee or partner, inform the Registrar of the appointment and furnish the Registrar with such information on the matter as the Registrar may reasonably require.”
Furthermore, licencing condition 1 clearly states: “The financial services provider must inform the Registrar in writing, by facsimile or in an appropriate electronic format, within 15 days after the change has taken place, of any change in respect of business information of the financial services provider as provided in Form FSP1, FSP3, FSP4, FSP9, FSP10, FSP10A or FSP11, respectively, of the Application Form which was submitted by the provider for purposes of obtaining a licence, and in particular relating to the provider’s representatives, auditor, compliance officer or any foreign clearing firm or foreign forex service provider involved (if any) and nominee company or independent custodian involved or the shareholders, directors or trustees of any such company or custodian (If any).”
A number of FSPs do not notify the Registrar of the above changes within the prescribed period. The non-compliance is often picked up during the course of processing other license amendments (“profile changes”) at the request of the FSPs. The office of the Registrar then engages the FSPs concerned on the non-compliance and it is only then that the FSP’s records are duly updated.
One of the key responsibilities of the FAIS department is to monitor, on an on-going basis, compliance with the requirements of the FAIS Act. The office of the Registrar has made available various convenient platforms to enable FSPs to update their records with ease. These include:
- The online representative register;
- Email facility: faispfc@fsb.co.za ; and
- The online profile change system.
Non-compliance with this requirement is viewed in a serious light. As such, the industry is hereby informed that the Registrar of FSPs will henceforth impose a penalty on the FSPs who fail to adhere to this requirement as she deems fit. We therefore urge all FSPs to comply with the requirement in order avoid such penalties.
