FAIS Act: Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002

At a glance

Full text

Official full text: Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (PDF, en)¹ · 2,321 KB · file checked 2026-09-24

Official page: gov.za¹

Summary

The FAIS Act (No. 37 of 2002) is South Africa's core law regulating the rendering of financial advice and intermediary services to clients. It requires anyone acting as a financial services provider (FSP) to hold a licence issued by the registrar (Sec. 7-8), sets fit-and-proper requirements (honesty, competence, financial soundness), and regulates representatives, key individuals, compliance officers and codes of conduct. It created the Office of the Ombud for Financial Services Providers (Sec. 20) to resolve client complaints, and Sec. 36 makes unlicensed activity or false statements in an application a criminal offence punishable by a fine up to R1,000,000 or up to 10 years' imprisonment. The 'financial product' definition (Sec. 1) includes a residual clause letting the registrar declare, by Gazette notice, any similar product a financial product for the Act's purposes -- the clause the FSCA (successor registrar under the Financial Sector Regulation Act) used in 2022 to bring crypto assets and crypto-related advice/intermediary services within FSP licensing. The registrar's functions are now performed by the FSCA.

Summary written by the Atlas from the official text; the law itself prevails.

Main articles

• Sec. 1: Defines 'financial product', 'financial service' and 'financial services provider'; includes a residual clause for the registrar to declare new products in the Gazette.
• Sec. 7: Bars acting or offering to act as a financial services provider without a licence issued under Sec. 8.
• Sec. 8: Sets the licence application process and fit-and-proper requirements (honesty, competence, financial soundness) assessed by the registrar.
• Sec. 9-11: Govern suspension, withdrawal and lapsing of an FSP licence.
• Sec. 17-19: Require authorised FSPs to have compliance officers/arrangements, keep records, and meet accounting and audit requirements.
• Sec. 20: Establishes the Office of the Ombud for Financial Services Providers to determine client complaints.
• Sec. 36: Makes unlicensed FSP activity or a false/misleading licence application an offence: fine up to R1,000,000 or up to 10 years' imprisonment, or both.

Licences it governs

• IF · South Africa

  Financial Services Provider licence - Category I (advice and/or intermediary services, non-discretionary, incl. crypto assets)

  FSCA

• IF · South Africa

  Financial Services Provider licence - Category II (discretionary FSP)

  FSCA

• IF · South Africa

  Over-the-Counter Derivative Provider (ODP) authorisation under the Financial Markets Act

  FSCA

• VASP · South Africa

  Crypto Asset Service Provider licence (an FSP authorisation category under FAIS, not a MiCA-equivalent regime)

  FSCA

Regulators that apply it

• South Africa

  Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA)

  The FSCA is South Africa's dedicated market-conduct regulator, supervising how financial institutions treat customers across banking, insura

Upcoming changes

• 2022-10-19: FSCA General Notice 1350 of 2022 (Government Gazette 47334) declares a crypto asset a 'financial product' under Sec. 1 of the FAIS Act, bringing crypto asset advice and intermediary services within FSP licensing.²