South Africa’s Financial Services Board (FSB) has just published its Annual Report for the fiscal year to March 31, 2015, providing some key numbers regarding the oversight of financial service providers (FSPs), a group which includes investment intermediaries such as Forex brokers.
The regulator reported that its Financial Advisory and Intermediate Services (FAIS) division authorized 635 new financial service providers’ applications, compared to 514 in the prior year. The majority (552) were authorised as category I (financial intermediaries).
The regulator declined authorization as FSPs to 34 applicants as they failed to meet fit-and-proper requirements for such licenses. A total of 459 FSPs voluntarily requested to have their authorisation revoked.
In 2015, the regulator registered a 5% increase in the volume of complaint cases against FSPs. The volume of resolved cases rose by 50% year on year.
During the period, 2 663 cases were opened and 931 licences suspended after due processes, down 1.5% from 2014.
During the period, there were 35 enforcement cases against providers and individuals for alleged contraventions of the FAIS Act. Twenty were closed due to lack of evidence or referred to the enforcement unit for further action. Three enforcement orders were issued against providers and individuals, with penalties of R1.25 million imposed.
You can view the full report by clicking here.