When are levy payments to the FSCA due?

The Financial Sector and Deposit Insurance Levies Act (the “Levies Act”) and the Financial Sector and Deposit Insurance Levies (Administration) and Deposit Insurance Premiums Act have changed how levies are imposed on entities supervised by the FSCA and the Prudential Authority (PA).

Before the commencement of these Acts in April this year, the FSCA published levy notices by August each year in terms of the Financial Services Board Act, read with regulation 2(3) of the Financial Sector Regulations. However, since the FSB Act has been repealed, these levy notices are no longer published.

Instead, the Schedules to the Levies Act outline how the financial sector levies are calculated. These Schedules specify whether there will be one or four payments in a levy year and set out the formula for each levy.

Before the commencement of the levy Acts, FSPs received levy statements from the FSCA, and levies had to be paid by 31 October each year.

The Schedule to the Financial Sector and Deposit Insurance Levies (Administration) and Deposit Insurance Premiums Act introduced amendments to the Financial Sector Regulation Act (FSRA) to align the FSRA with the levy Acts.

These amendments have changed the payment terms for the levies payable to the FSCA and the PA.

Regarding the levy payable to the FSCA, section 237(3A)(a) of the FSRA provides that the levies referred to in sections 2 to 8 and 12 of the Levies Act, read with Schedules 2 to 5 to that Act, are payable to the FSCA on the dates and in the manner specified by the Authority in terms of section 242 or on the date agreed to by the FSCA.

(Schedules 2 to 5 provide for the funding of the FSCA, the Financial Services Tribunal, the Ombud Council, the Pension Funds Adjudicator, and the FAIS Ombud.)

As far as Moonstone is aware, the FSCA has not agreed to another date other than what is set out in section 242 of the FSRA.

Section 242 states:

(1) A financial sector body must issue to each supervised entity or member that is liable to pay a levy or deposit insurance premium for the financial year an assessment of a levy or deposit insurance premium payable by the supervised entity or member.

(2) The assessment notice issued to a supervised entity or member must state the date on which the levy or deposit insurance premium is due and must be paid, which period must not be less than 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice of assessment by the supervised entity or member.

Therefore, there is no current provision stating that levies must be paid by 31 October. They are payable on the date stated in the assessment (when received), and the date on which the payment is due may not be less than 30 days from the receipt of the notice.

The FSCA has confirmed that the assessment statements will be sent out by the end of October.

Click here to open a table that sets out how to calculate the FSP levies for the levy year from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.