In brief
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa has issued a notice to request information relating to ownership from certain financial institutions in South Africa. The required information must be submitted online by 30 September 2022, and failure to do so will constitute an offense.
In depth
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has issued a notice to request information relating to ownership from certain financial institutions, namely:
- Authorised Financial Services Providers (FSPs) licensed to operate under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 but excluding:
- Banks, mutual banks and insurers licensed by the Prudential Authority.
- FSPs authorized for non-life insurance and/or health service benefit products only.
- Sole proprietors and partnerships.
- Managers administering a collective investment scheme in terms of the Collective Investment Scheme Act, 2002.
The drive to collect this information stems from South Africa’s membership of the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), the global gatekeeper of Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). The FSCA is, under the auspices of the FATF, required to scrutinize the ownership of its supervised entities more closely to help mitigate the risk of financial institutions being used to facilitate criminal activity.
The impacted financial institutions (FSPs and Managers) are requested to upload an organogram outlining the total ownership and control structure of the financial institution. This is to enable the FSCA to verify the ownership information.
Two levels of ownership information should be provided to the FSCA:
- Level 1 – Direct ownership information of impacted financial institution – All ownership information relating to 100% of the direct ownership of the impacted financial institution should be submitted, regardless of the type of owner or percentage of ownership held.
- Level 2 – Next ownership levels information (indirect ownership of impacted financial institution).
All ownership information relating to 100% of the indirect ownership of the impacted financial institution should be submitted.
The required information should be submitted online via the FAIS e-portal for FSPs and the CIS/Hedge Fund e-portal for Managers accessible here. Once logged in, select the “Beneficial Ownership Information” option and complete all required fields.
The required information must be submitted no later than 30 September 2022. Failure to comply will constitute an offense.
Further information can be obtained here.
