IN THIS ISSUE

In March allegations of a R200 million Ponzi scheme involving South African fund manager Cobus Kellermann started making headlines. A number of journalists contacted ASISA for comment on the scheme.

ASISA has been unable to comment on the allegations or dispense advice to potential victims of the scheme, because first, the allegations are still under investigation, and second the alleged events took place outside of South Africa’s jurisdiction.

However, this event has once again highlighted the solid regulatory structure provided by the Collective Investment Schemes Control Act (CISCA), which governs the South African Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) industry.

We were pleased to see that a number of journalists have made reference to the fact that no money could have been stolen from South African unit trust funds since assets in a CIS structure are always segregated from the fund manager and held by an independent trustee entity.

ASISA submitted comment at the end of February to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) on Draft Guide 1 on the implementation of an intergovernmental agreement to improve international tax compliance. In March the ASISA FATCA working group together with the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA) engaged with SARS on the comments with the aim of finalising the draft.

ASISA has also been approached by members who operate in other African countries to see what role ASISA can play in facilitating FATCA compliance in the region.

The FSB sent Life Office Tax templates to long-term insurers for completion by end of March 2015.  

ASISA is engaging with the FSB to define the process to be followed after the templates have been completed and to ensure that a proper consultative approach is followed.

The ASISA Consumer Financial Education Standing Committee has tasked itself with becoming ASISA’s Centre of Best Practice for consumer financial education.

The objective is to set best practice standards for ASISA members on consumer financial education. The intended value for ASISA members is to:

• Facilitate best practice by sharing learnings and to create guidelines for designing programmes that incorporate these best practices.

• Promote uniformity throughout the industry and focus to keep things simple, specifically in terms of content development.

• Demonstrate the impact of consumer education efforts on the broader community.

• Showcase the value of collaboration in achieving a bigger impact on communities, the industry and the national agenda.

The committee has identified activities that will drive the initiative of becoming a Centre of Best Practice. These will be made available on the ASISA website once finalised - click here.

After the declaration of hedge funds as Collective Investment Schemes under CISCA in February, the FSB issued the regulations in Board Notice 52 of 2015 on 6 March 2015. This Notice, which takes effect on 1 April, is the Determination on the Requirements for Hedge Funds and covers Qualified Investor Hedge Funds and Retail Hedge Funds.

Hedge fund managers will have to apply for approval of their hedge fund products within six months of that date and have up to twelve months from date of approval to comply with the requirements.

Following the pioneering success of the Academy’s Financial Journalist Bootcamp in Johannesburg last year, the Academy welcomed a group of Cape Town based financial journalists in March to deepen their understanding of our industry. The Bootcamp was again sponsored by MMI Holdings, but developed and delivered by the Academy to ensure independence. We look forward to running this exciting Bootcamp again in both Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2016.

Last year also saw the successful start of the Claritas Exam Readiness workshops. The Academy will therefore be presenting more of these workshops in Cape Town during April and May. The Claritas Investment Certificate is the CFA Institute’s latest course designed to benefit anyone working in a financial services organisation. Please click here for information on the Academy Claritas workshops.

In March the first two of the Academy’s UCT partnership courses for 2015 commenced, namely the CIS and IMACS Short Courses. We are delighted that both courses were sold out and that in the first quarter of this year we have already run courses with all three of our university partners - UCT, UJ and TSiBA.

We would like to remind you that registration for the ASISA 2015 Conference closes on 30 April 2015. We have secured an impressive line-up of presenters and a large number of seats have already been sold.

The Conference will be held on 5 and 6 May at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.  The theme for this year’s Conference is “The Tipping Point”.

The Conference will include an exhibition under the theme “The Cutting Edge” where various service providers will showcase the latest developments relevant to the savings and investment industry. The majority of the exhibition stands have been sold. For more information and registration please click here.

And lastly, we wish you a good rest over the upcoming public holidays and school holidays. If you are travelling we hope you return safely.

Kind regards

Leon and Peter