The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has published a revised draft Conduct Standard for determining the minimum skills and training requirements for board members of pension funds.
The revised draft minimum skills and training requirements were circulated as part of a FSCA ‘parliamentary pack’. According to Pam Saxby of Legalbrief Policy Watch, this suggests that they may soon be published, in which case the 1 June commencement date may need to be changed or retrospectively applied.
The purpose of the draft Conduct Standard is to prescribe the minimum skills and training requirements for board members of funds as contemplated in section 7A(3)(a) of the Pension Funds Act, 1956:
| ● | This Conduct Standard proposes that the certification of the Trustee Starter Toolkit as provided for by the Authority on the website “www.trusteetoolkit.co.za”, be prescribed as the minimum skills and training requirement as envisaged in section 7A(3)(a) of the Act. The Toolkit will consist of tutorials, case studies, formative (initial) assessments and a summative (final) assessment. |
| ● | It is further proposed that board members who already attained the certification will be required to complete additional modules as and when such additional modules are added to the Toolkit by the Authority. |
| ● | In addition, the completion of the summative (final) assessment must be done under the supervision of the principal officer or chairperson of the board (who must issue a declaration that the assessment was so completed), except where such supervision is impractical. Where it is impractical the board member can do the assessment without supervision but must complete a declaration stating that the assessment was completed without assistance. The declaration must also be provided to the Authority on request. |
| ● | The draft Conduct Standards also provided for a process in respect of how new modules may be determined by the FSCA. |
The following documents are available for download:
