FINANCIAL SERVICES
From Charter
to Code
The Banking Council proposed an instrument to transform South Africa’s
financial services sector. The Banking Association concluded it.
S
outh Africa’s banking sector has played a key role
in crafting the long-awaited Financial Sector Code
(FSC), a blueprint setting the transformation agenda
in the country’s highly competitive financial services
sector.
Of a whopping R122 billion that South African financial services
companies have agreed to provide for empowerment finance
between now and 2017, some R80 billion will come from banks,
a sign of commitment and a substantial vote of confidence in the
transformative Code. The other R42 billion is expected to come from
the Association of Savings Institutes of South Africa (ASISA).
The Financial Sector Code, successor to the Financial Sector
Charter, was gazetted by Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies
in November 2012. Implementation of the Code began in January
this year.
It has taken a full 10 years for the financial services industry and
other stakeholders, including government, to agree on and finalise
the Code.
The Banking Association South Africa’s Thabo Tlaba-Mokoena,
General Manager in the Socio-Economic Growth and Development
Division, says the performance of the financial services sector
in adhering to the FSC is expected to be assessed by verification
agencies. Reports are expected to be produced from next year.
Financial services companies with annual revenue of R10 million
and more are expected to report on how they are meeting the
transformation agenda set in the Code.
The long journey to realisation of the FSC began when the Banking
Council – now The Banking Association South Africa – initially
volunteered a Charter in 2002.
‘We then approached other sectors in the financial industry,
including black interest in the industry, and began the negotiation
process to give effect to the FSC,’ Tlaba-Mokoena says. ‘The
Banking Association has been intricately involved since then in all
aspects of negotiations, implementation, monitoring and tracking,
under the auspices of the Financial Sector Charter Council.’
The voluntary Charter was presented by Derek Cooper, the
former chairman of Standard Bank, following a financial sector
summit in 2002. It was signed in 2003 and the Financial Sector
Charter came in effect in January 2004.
The ultimate goal was to redraft the Financial Services Charter
into the Financial Sector Code, which was finally gazetted in
November last year.
The Charter had set transformation targets which included
addressing access to financial services, employment equity,
The Financial Services Charter
also called on banks to provide
banking services closer to
communities in order to reduce
the costs of accessing banking.
14
BANKER SA
Edition 6
Subbed Banker 8 Feature 2 -Financial Services.indd 14
2013/07/17 3:39 PM