The Financial Services Laws General Amendment Act, No. 45 of 2013 (FSLGA Act) was published in the Government Gazette on 16 January 2014, and included changes to the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (FAIS Act).
The FSB published FAIS Information Circular 03/2014 on 20 March 2014 to advise the industry of transitional arrangements in relation to the implementation of the updated examination questions.
The following aspects are covered in the circular:
Impact on the level 1 regulatory examinations
- The amendments to the FAIS Act affect approximately 25% of the current level 1 regulatory examination questions. These questions must now be updated to reflect such amendments.
- The date by which the updated examinations will be implemented is Monday, 14 April 2014. From this date all level 1 regulatory examinations will contain the updated questions.
- Persons writing the exam on or after 14 April 2014 would therefore have to ensure that they familiarise themselves with the amendments to the FAIS Act as contained in the FSLGA Act.
- The date by which the questions will be updated for the Afrikaans examinations will be communicated in due course.
Preparation for the level 1 RE
In order to properly identify and contextualise the amendments to the FAIS Act, the FSGLA Act must be read in conjunction with the FAIS Act. Reading the two Acts together may be confusing. An alternative option is to access, via the FSB website, the Sabinet version of the FAIS Act that reflects, in the text of the Act, the amendments. The amended sections are highlighted in yellow for ease of reference.
To access the Sabinet version of the FAIS Act, please click here.
Other preparation material also available to persons wanting to prepare for the level 1 regulatory examinations are:
- Preparation Guide for RE 1 and RE 5 – the updated Preparation Guide will be available on the FSB website on Wednesday, 2 April 2014.
- INSETA Self-study Guide / Training Manual – The material available on the INSETA website will be updated and availability will be communicated by INSETA in due course.
- Other workshop materials, interventions and preparation guides offered through training providers – the FSB does not have any oversight over these training providers, it is not possible to confirm by when training providers would be offering updated interventions.
FSPs are cautioned to ensure that training providers are aware of the legislative changes and include this in their training interventions in accordance with the dates given above.
Implementation of the updated questions and examination registrations
- Candidates already registered to write the level 1 regulatory examination BEFORE Monday, 14 April 2014 will still write the current version of the level 1 regulatory examination without the updated questions included.
- Those who register to write the level 1 regulatory examinations ON or AFTER Monday, 14 April 2014 will write the new version of the level 1 regulatory examinations which will include the updated questions.
- The standard cancelation policy for the regulatory examinations applies to all registrations Candidates are welcome to re-schedule their examinations subject to the conditions contained in the cancelation policy published in FAIS Information Circular 03/2014.
We list below the dates to which the above apply, as well as the final dates to request changes:
|
Examination Date |
Latest date to request changes to bookings |
|
2014-04-07 |
2014-03-20 |
|
2014-04-08 |
2014-03-24 |
|
2014-04-09 |
2014-03-25 |
|
2014-04-10 |
2014-03-26 |
|
2014-04-11 |
2014-03-27 |
|
2014-04-14 |
2014-03-28 |
Please click here to access FAIS Circular 03/2014.
