Regulatory update - Some news on the COFI Bill

Regulatory update - Some news on the COFI Bill
On 6 May 2025 the FSCA issued its Regulatory Strategy 2025 - 2028 which gives us some indications of when the Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill may become enacted legislation. A major focus of the FSCA over the next three years will be preparing for the implementation of the COFI Act which itself has to be enacted.

On 6 May 2025 the FSCA issued its Regulatory Strategy 2025 - 2028 which gives us some indications of when the Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill may become enacted legislation. A major focus of the FSCA over the next three years will be preparing for the implementation of the COFI Act which itself has to be enacted. The Authorities have yet to develop a regulatory framework. They must refine their licensing and supervisory approaches to adapt to the principles of the proposed law.

The COFI Act will regulate new activities that will fall under the jurisdiction of the FSCA.

The FSCA has initiated the development of an incremental roadmap to outline the timelines because of what is referred to in a major understatement as "the uncertainty around the timing of finalisation of the COFI Bill¢â‚¬. The roadmap has not yet been published.

The COFI Act will require new licensing provisions for all persons regulated by the FSCA in line with the licensing categories covered by the Financial Sector Regulation Act.  This licensing process is likely to take considerable time when you think of the number of financial institutions, including FSPs, who will need to be relicensed under different categories.

Another major problem is what is called "planning for the development of a subordinate regulatory framework under the COFI Act and transitioning existing financial sector laws into this framework¢â‚¬. It is going to be a major burden on regulators and the regulated to cope with the new regulatory framework in the form of Standards. Comparing them with existing extensive laws such as those under the Long-term Insurance Act, the Short-term Insurance Act, the FAIS Act and many other pieces of legislation or subordinate legislation, will be a massive undertaking for regulators and the regulated.

Unfortunately the Strategy Report deals with everything in general terms.  Unlike a previous Regulatory Strategy document, there is no specific timeline for what has to happen. What is clear is that the COFI Act will not be implemented for at least another three years and that is probably optimistic.

Underlying everything is the fact that none of us knows what the COFI Bill looks like or is going to look like because there has been no publication of nor proper consultation on the latest version of the Bill.  We all need to hope that will be step one in the process and that the step will be taken soon.

Patrick Bracher
Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa
May 2025