FINANCE Minister Tito Mboweni has appointed the first Ombud Council Board and a Chief Ombud for the Council to give financial customers access to an affordable and effective dispute resolution process.
This gives effect to the new financial Ombud system in terms of the Financial Sector Regulation Act No. 9 of 2017 (FSR Act).
Eileen Meyer has been appointed as a Chief Ombud, which follows the appointment of the first Board of Directors (BoD), effective for a three-year term commencing November 1, 2020.
The BoD is made of Deanne Wood – Chairperson, Adv Dikeledi Chabedi – Vice Chairperson, Emmanuel Lekgau, Silindile Kubheka, Adam Horowitz, Charmaine Soobramoney and Katherine Gibson (Acting FSCA Commissioner).
The current acting FSCA Commissioner will serve on the BoD until Unathi Kamlana assumes office as the recently appointed full-time Commissioner.
“The Ombud Council is established in terms of section 175(1) of the FSR Act. The objective of the Ombud Council is to assist in ensuring that financial customers have access to, and are able to use affordable, effective, independent and fair alternative dispute resolution processes for complaints about financial institutions in relation to financial products, financial services and services provided by financial infrastructures,” said the finance ministry.
The Ombud Council will have oversight powers over both the statutory and industry Ombuds namely: Office of the Pension Fund Adjudicator, Office of the Ombud for Financial Services Providers (FAIS Ombud), Office of the Credit Ombud, Ombudsman for Long - Term Insurance, Ombudsman for Short - Term Insurance, Ombudsman for Banking Services and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Ombud.
“The Ombud Council will recognise industry schemes, set enhanced governance and accountability requirements, and harmonise and strengthen standards of practice for each Ombud scheme through rule-making and enforcement powers, to develop a uniform and consistent framework for external dispute resolution mechanisms across the financial services sector,” said the ministry.
Cape Times