Cybercriminals ramp up their attacks on tax practitioners

SARS responds to reports of hackers accessing practitioners’ eFiling profiles, removing clients, and changing banking details.

Remorse and Forgiveness

Reviews of decisions by the Registrar and the FAIS Ombud tend to take a slightly more formal and legalistic approach. In the case of the FSB, particularly, it also provides insight into cases […]

Qualifications and Execution of Sales

The new Fit and Proper (F&P) requirements due for publication any day now contains reference to a new concept which aims to address a thorny issue, namely the different levels of complexity of […]

FAIS Notice on PI Cover

The FSB’s FAIS Notice 110 of 2017, published on 17 August 2017, drew the following query from a reader: Pray old wise guru of all matters regulatory, for whom art this proclamation? I chose to […]

We recently published a template showing the deadlines for compliance officers to successfully complete specific regulatory exams. The FSB very kindly expanded on our original publication, including CO’s for Licence Category 4, and also […]

FAIS clearly unclear about intermediary services

The Free market Foundation recently published an article on a matter which has certainly been a major bugbear since the introduction of the FAIS Act. When does a person have to register for […]

R E and Qualifications Fraud

In a holding statement published on Thursday, 15 June, the Financial Planning Institute (FPI) responded as follows to a media release by the FSB: Falsification of Regulatory Examination Results and Issuance of Fraudulent Certificates […]

Review Material Terms Regularly

We recently discussed two determinations made by the Ombud for Financial Services Providers in which she found that the respondents were lacking in their duty to provide clients with a reasonable explanation of […]

Too many cooks

The phrase “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ear” was not uttered by Vincent van Gogh after the painful self-inflicted loss of his hearing appendage. A recent FAIS Ombud determination reminded me of […]

FAIS Reality Check from a Client Perspective

In April I reached that age where the company rules determine that the time has come for me to follow Paul Simon’s advice: “Slow down, you move too fast, you’ve got to make […]

RE Fraud

We encounter a variety of attempts by a limited number of candidates to cheat the system. As evidenced by the example in a recent Appeal Board case, crime really does not pay. The […]

Regulatory update on Short term matters

The FSB FAIS Conference earlier this month provided the latest thinking on a number of important aspects related to the short-term industry. Binders and outsourcing Leanne Jackson pointed out that a significant risk […]

Reinstatement after Debarment

My husband was debarred almost 5 years ago, the reason for debarment was justified and fair. That said I do believe that he has paid enough for his mistakes. Recently an FSP approached […]

New User Guide for the FAIS Online Reporting System

It is of the utmost importance that FSPs download and save a copy of this important document. It provides step-by-step guidelines on how to interact with the Regulator on the following matters: Submission […]

FAIS Ombud – Harten Determination

This complaint was originally dismissed by the FAIS Ombud on the basis that there was no reasonable prospect of success. The client reverted to the Board of Appeal who ruled that the Ombud’s […]