On Monday, we discussed the process employed at Moonstone when assisting applicants with their licence applications. If you missed it, click here to download the article.
On receipt of our application documents, the FSB puts the following processes in place:
- Receipt of the application is acknowledged by the allocation of a temporary number to your application (this number will automatically become your FSP number if approved.
- The application is forwarded to the FSB’s Finance department for validation of the fees payable and receipt thereof.
- The application is then sent to FAIS Registration where the information is captured on their database.
- An Analyst is then allocated to scrutinize the application. The work done by our staff makes it so much easier for the analyst, who does not have to obtain outstanding information etc. We already did that. This is possibly the most important reason for using Moonstone as your application intermediary.
- The Manager of the relevant analyst then reviews the application, and asks the analyst for additional information, if required.
- Once all requirements are met, the application, together with a memorandum of recommendation, is prepared for presentation to the next available Licensing Committee.
- These Committee meetings are scheduled for the second Tuesday of each month, except January, when no meeting is held.
The fact that a number of departments are involved, as is evident from the above, accounts for the time frame allocated to the process by the FSB.
There are certain issues, beyond our control, which can delay the process. Some examples of this are:
- Contact with overseas Regulators (where previous experience was gained in another country and not in SA);
- Honesty and Integrity issues. It might be, for instance, that a KI failed to disclose previous involvement with a FSP whose license was suspended/withdrawn;
- Proof of experience – the reference letter might be fraudulent, a previous employer might not have registered the KI or Rep, making it difficult for the FSB to acknowledge the experience accordingly;
- Illegal trading or fraud – the FSB has ways and means of determining issues of this nature, and will send the application to the Supervision department if their suspicions are aroused. Investigations of this nature take very long to complete, seriously delaying the application.
If you have any questions or queries related to licensing, please feel free to contact Louise Willemse, Naseemah Mullah or Abigail Sampson.
