Tougher Regulations in the Financial Sector
In 2014 the second draft for the Financial Sector Regulation Bill was drafted.
The bill/document acknowledges that laws do not go the extra mile in protecting the consumer. The bill focuses on what the regulators should focus on as to what the financial sector delivers to you as a consumer, but also to make sure that you as a consumer are treated fairly in every aspect.
The document stated the regulation to be intensive, intrusive, pre-emptive and pro-active.
The Financial and Services Board (FSB) and the National Treasury have been working in the 2015/2016 year in laying down requirements for financial service providers to give standardised terminology documents (documents which are easy to understand and does not contain jargon which cannot be understood by the average person).
Many people do not know about the upsets they get themselves into nor are many educated in the rules and regulations of financial service providers (FSP).
The National Credit Regulator (NCR) still remains independent and a vice on its own. The document/bill clearly states very important issues consumers are affected by with the extension of credit by banks.
- Reckless lending practices that leads to over-indebtness.
- Incorrectly targeted credit providers.
- Poor sale incentives that lead to unfair lending practices.
- A huge number of multiplicity of fees and commissions are often high and opaque, compounded by inadequate or poor disclosure to consumers.
- Abusing payment systems to collect debt.
- Abusing surety-ships.
