new supervision changes for fais on the cards

Fit and Proper Areas
Persons rendering financial services under the FAIS Act are all aware of the ability, and sometimes, the need to render services under supervision. This means that the person has not yet fully complied with some of the fit and proper requirements as stipulated under FAIS. 

The main areas of fit and proper requirements for persons that are representatives under FAIS are:

1. Honesty & Integrity (don't be a criminal)
2. Competence (you jump through some hoops, a lot of hoops)
   1. Experience in specific FAIS subcategories
   2. Minimum Qualifications
   3. RE Exams
   4. Class of Business Training (new)
   5. Product Specific Training (new)
3. CPD  (some more hoops) (new)

For more detail you can view the full fit and proper requirements here. Just make sure you lie down as jou will inevitably fall asleep a few times while reading it. You can read about some of the new additions to the fit and proper list in this previous post. In that post we detailed the time-frames that one has to comply with the new changes. Some of which are continual in terms of their application unless you fall within the exemptions for certain of the Competence requirements. Remember full exemption in itself is not the same as rendering services under supervision, which is what we will cover next.

Supervision Now
A person can currently render services under supervision if they do not meet the following Fit and Proper Requirements:

1. Minimum Qualifications (subject to certain requirements) - max 6 years
2. Experience - max 6 years
3. RE Exams - max 2 years 

You can view the current supervision requirements here.

Transitional Provisions 
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority provided interim relief recently to persons appointed rendering services under supervision before 1 August 2018 to comply by 1 August 2019 and people appointed after 1 August 2018 to comply by 31 January 2019 with class of business training requirements. Yes, if compared, the two time-frames do not make much sense and it seems a bit unfair. We are speaking to the FSCA about it.

​You can read more about the Transitional Exemptions here and here. One would have thought just planning ahead and drafting one exemption and aligning time-frames would be simpler.  Anyway, we appreciate that they at least provided these exemptions in the end. 

Possible Supervision in the Future
Recently the FSCA issued a consultation paper that would change the landscape a little in that the supervision provisions are expanded to include some of the new fit and proper requirements. This will inevitably replace the old and transitional period provisions. This would go a long way to assist FSP's in complying. You can view the paper here.

Some Suggested CPD and Class of Business Providers
If you do need to comply with the class of business and CPD requirements you can perhaps contact some of the following providers:

• Integrity Academy
• FIA

Please note, we do not endorse, have a relationship or guarantee the quality of learning with any of these providers. We are merely pointing you in a direction where you might find something that fits your needs to comply with the training requirements.

Takeaway
This is only a very limited overview of the new and proposed changes. If you need specific guidance on the aforementioned, please contact us. Although there are some exemptions and extensions with regards to the time-frames its best to get things in place sooner than later.  FSPs are advised to acquaint themselves with the changes, their implications and implementation.