15 September 2014 at Kalahari Sands Hotel
By Kai Friedrich

Matters arising from the previous meeting

1. Quarterly Pension Fund Reporting
   
   Namfisa is currently in the process of revising the quarterly SIH template in order to address all issues raised on the previously circulated template. For this they have established a work group, consisting of Namfisa employees as well as of representatives of the asset manager industry. They have set themselves a target of 30 September 2014 to finalise this project. Namfisa was confident that this target would be met.
    
2. Pension Fund Backed Housing loans (PFBHL)
   
   Namfisa indicated that the new legislation on PFBHL has been approved by National Assembly and is now with the National Council for review. After that the President will sign this legislation into law.
    
3. Tax related issues
   
   The comments previously sent to the industry by the Directorate of Inland Revenue on issues raised at a prior industry meeting were noted by Namfisa. No further discussions on this topic arose.
    
4. FIM Bill
   
   No new developments on the FIM Bill have been noted.
    

New matters

1. Registration of Special Purpose Vehicles and Unlisted Investment Managers
   
   To date no SPV’s or UIM’s have been approved by the Regulator. Although Namfisa could not indicate how many were in the “pipe-line” for review and approval, as this falls within another department at Namfisa not present at this meeting, they mentioned that one SPV and one UIM, administered by the same asset manager, have complied with all requirements and should be registered at the next licencing committee meeting.
   
   A discussion arose regarding Namfisa’s view on granting industry-wide extension on compliance with Reg 29 requirements. Namfisa’s view was that funds need to apply in writing for extension in order to provide Namfisa with reasons as to why extension is granted. In their view, even though no or only limited SPVs / UIMs have been registered, funds are still required to comply with legislation. Thus funds are obliged to apply for extension i.t.o. s33 of the Pension Funds Act.
   
   Other SPVs / UIMs applied for registration but still needed to provide Namfisa with outstanding documentation requested by Namfisa.
    
2. Circular of Approved Bonds (items 4 & 5 of Annexure 1 to Regulation 28)
   
   Namfisa provided some overview of a draft circular that they sent to RFIN on 20 August 2014 in which they provide certain guidelines on Bonds that need to be approved by Namfisa before an investor can invest in these. This includes the country as well as the institution that needs to be approved by the Regulator in certain cases. In this regard Namfisa uses ratings by the three biggest international rating agencies as guidelines.
   
   Thus countries or institutions with a rating of higher than BB+ / Ba1 only may be considered for investment in their bonds. Investors are also expected to perform due diligence procedures on these bonds, although Namfisa does not want to provide guidelines as to what due diligence procedures entail. In their view they do not want to place restrictions on which due diligence procedures need to be performed and thus rather do not want to provide guidelines.
    
3. Implementation of prescribed application forms
   
   For easier administrative procedures of the regulator Namfisa has drafted some prescribed application forms, e.g. for fund registration, appointments of PO’s etc. These will be circulated to industry soon for comment.
    
4. Disclosure of costs
   
   Namfisa raised a discussion as to whether costs to funds and members are adequately disclosed. A few pros and cons were raised by industry on this matter, especially when it comes to disclosing too much information to members. Industry was in agreement that all costs need to be adequately disclosed, but the level of detail provided to members in particular should be limited in order not to raise any confusion or uncertainties.
   
   It was noted by industry that in fact trustees should be adequately equipped for their duties as trustees in order to communicate appropriately with members. This can only be achieved if trustees know their fund and their duties.
    
5. Namfisa internal staff movements
   
   Namfisa informed the industry that the manager: Pension Funds, Mr Ryan Louw, as well as the senior analyst, Mr Silas Naobeb, have moved to the RPS (Research,Policy and Statistics)department, also within Namfisa, as Policy Advisor and Policy Analyst respectively.
   
   A financial analyst, and a legal officer: Provident Funds, have been appointed in the meantime.