FINANCIAL SECTOR: INPUT SOUGHT ON ‘BUSINESS OF A BANK’ ACTIVITY EXEMPTION PROPOSALS

FINANCIAL SECTOR: INPUT SOUGHT ON ‘BUSINESS OF A BANK’ ACTIVITY EXEMPTION PROPOSALS

• 20 May 2026
• Financial Sector
• SA Legal Academy

The Prudential Authority has called for input by 15 June 2026 on a draft directive exempting certain activities from falling under the 1990 Banks Act term ‘business of a bank’.

Focusing on ‘payment activities that involve the pooling of funds from the public’, once finalised and in force the proposed new directive will enable non-banks to ‘independently conduct specific payment activities’. This in the context of an ongoing South African Reserve Bank (SARB) payment activities regulatory framework review and modernisation process – one outcome of which will be an authorisation framework on which consultations are already under way, as SA Legal Academy has already reported.

According to the communication, supported by the finalised exemption directive, once operationalised the authorisation framework is expected to:

• ‘enhance competition and financial inclusion within the payments ecosystem’, thus
• enabling ‘both banks and non‑bank service providers to offer more convenient, cost‑effective and innovative payment products and services’, thereby
• ‘expanding consumer choice’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• communication
• draft directive
• draft accompanying notice
• statement of need
• SARB revised draft authorisation framework (November 2025)
• SA Legal Academy report
• comment template
• accompanying draft authorisation framework comment template 

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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