IN THIS ISSUE

Dear stakeholder

We concluded July with the launch of the ASISA Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Guideline for Consumer Financial Education (CFE). The comprehensive Guideline was introduced to our members and other interested stakeholders at presentations in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The Guideline was developed to provide best practice guidance to members on how to plan, monitor and evaluate CFE programmes and how to report on the outcomes. It also outlines the criteria for good-quality monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and creates a framework for consistent and centralised reporting.

While most of our members monitor their CFE programmes and commission independent evaluations, there are considerable variations in M&E practices across CFE programmes. Centralised reporting will enable ASISA to demonstrate the collective impact of our industry’s many CFE initiatives.

As a next step, ASISA will collect information from all member companies on CFE programmes implemented during their 2018 financial years
with the aim of developing a baseline report. The intention is to repeat the survey periodically to enable the industry to track its progress and better plan its involvement in CFE. This should result in better and more sustainable outcomes for the beneficiaries of these interventions.

The ASISA Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Guideline for Consumer Financial Education is available here.

In March this year we reported that ASISA had assembled a broad group of private sector stakeholders interested in assisting with the TAMDEV initiative proposed during the Presidential Job Summit held in October 2018.

TAMDEV is an intervention whereby retired and semi-retired technical experts from the private sector are seconded to Government to assist in the improvement of service delivery and to mentor and develop public servants at the same time.

It was agreed that TAMDEV would operate from within the National Business Initiative (NBI). The NBI is an independent and voluntary movement of companies working towards economic and social transformation in South Africa through responsible business action. 

The NBI appointed Ruth Troskie as TAMDEV programme manager effective from 1 July and Ruth has wasted no time in mapping out the implementation plan and setting up meetings with key stakeholders.

TAMDEV is supported by ASISA, Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the National Mentorship Movement (NMM), Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), iLimaLethu Trust, the NBI and the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA).

During the consultation process on the Financial Sector Regulation Bill, ASISA members expressed concern that clause 172 of the Bill (now section 174 of the FSRA) prohibited indemnities for administrative penalties. Members felt that in limited circumstances, such as in outsourcing agreements between an investment management company (Manco) and a third-party administrator, such indemnities would be both necessary and desirable. As a consequence, National Treasury amended section 174 to provide for Joint Standards to be published that permit such indemnities in certain circumstances.

However, no Joint Standard has been published under section 174. Members therefore requested ASISA to approach the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and the Prudential Authority (PA) to explain the urgent need. ASISA has sent a written motivation to both regulatory authorities as requested, since they have the power to impose administrative penalties (versus criminal penalties which would be imposed by a court) on a person who has contravened a financial sector law.

The CFA Institute released the updated version of the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) on 30 June 2019 with an implementation date of 1 January 2020.

The Standards are globally accepted by asset management firms and considered industry best practice for investment performance reporting and presentation. The Standards enable meaningful comparisons of past performance of asset managers. The updated Standards  aim to better accommodate managers of pooled funds and alternative investments.

On 24 July 2019 the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and the Prudential Authority (PA) published a second draft of the Joint Standard on Fit and Proper Requirements for Significant Owners of Financial Institutions. The deadline for public comment is 4 September 2019. ASISA will submit comments on behalf of member companies.

A forum has been established by ASISA, the Prudential Authority (PA) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) to deal with anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) issues. The first meeting was held on 24 July 2019. 

The forum aims to facilitate dialogue and collaboration to achieve effective implementation of an AML/CTF framework within the South African life insurance sector, including in particular the application of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA). ASISA is represented on the forum by members of the ASISA FICA Standing Committee.  Stakeholders such as the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) will be invited to meetings when necessary.

The ASISA Foundation has launched the second iteration of the Financial Literacy and Micro-Enterprise (FLAME 2.0) Programme. In line with the staggered roll out plan, FLAME 2 kicked off in Philippi near Cape Town at the Philippi Economic Development Initiative (PEDI) Urban Agriculture Academy on 16 July 2019. FLAME 2.0 will also be implemented in Diepsloot, Gauteng, and the greater King Williams Town area in the Eastern Cape. 

The FLAME Programme empowers micro–enterprise owners to sustainably develop and grow their businesses with confidence, create employment and contribute to the local and national economy through an accredited business development methodology, using financial literacy as a core development tool.

The target areas were selected following an extensive scoping and diagnostic exercise. Philippi was chosen for the first phase rollout and a partnership was established with the PEDI Urban Agriculture AgriHub, which focuses on the development of small urban farmers in the township of Philippi. The first FLAME 2.0 participants were selected from their network of Agri-entrepreneurs. These 20 farmers include small scale farmers from Khayelitsha (6), New Crossroads, Philippi (1), Mfuleni (4), Mitchells Plain (4), Gugulethu (3), Langa (1), and Kwezi Park (1). More than half of the participants are female.

ASISA’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) initiatives concluded the second quarter with a milestone that is critically important for our country. We are proud to announce that since inception to the end of June 2019, our ESD initiatives have resulted in the creation of 1 006 new jobs. Also since inception, 732 black owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) received support worth R444 million (R287 million in SME investments and R157 million for SME development programmes), which helped sustain another 4 185 jobs.

The Academy’s 2018/19 group of black IMACS@TSiBA students graduated from the classroom to the workplace in July after successfully completing all required examinations. Students are required to pass the Academy’s Investment Management Administration & Client Servicing (IMACS) examinations as well as their TSiBA’s examinations. TSiBA is a Cape Town-based accredited not-for-profit higher education institution offering undergraduate and postgraduate business qualifications.

For the next 16 weeks the students will intern with sponsoring ASISA member companies towards the completion of their TSiBA Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degrees. Since the start of the Academy’s TSiBA partnership at least 85% of the graduates have been permanently employed by ASISA member companies following their internships. 

The IMACS@TSiBA programme is a dynamic partnership formed in 2011 with TSiBA to identify and attract graduates who have what it takes to build a career in our industry. The programme was designed by our industry and is delivered by expert practitioners to create a pipeline of work ready graduates who have a practical understanding of the investment administration environment and its systems.

In terms of the partnership, TSiBA students in their second year of studying towards their BBA degree can apply to participate in ASISA Academy’s IMACS@TSiBA programme. On successful completion of their mid-year exams in their third year, these students embark on internships for a period of 16 weeks to gain practical experience in investment administration environments.  Each student is also assigned a practical project by the sponsoring company.  These projects culminate in a final presentation at the end of the year and successful completion determines whether the students obtain their BBA degree.