Chairperson, I think your remarks are really welcomed, but I also think that the Arrive Alive Campaign must also make sure that other motorists drive safely on the roads, so that they should not cause accidents and create problems for people like me.
Deputy Minister of Finance and hon members of this august house, the Financial Services Board Amendment Bill seeks to bring technical amendments which are of a substantive nature to the principal Act. The Financial Services Board is an independent statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, namely the Financial Services Board Act, 97 of 1990. The board supervises the South African nonbanking financial sector, which, amongst others, includes insurance companies, asset management and so on.
The Financial Services Board's mission is to promote sound, efficient financial institutions and services, together with mechanisms for investor protection. The Financial Services Board is accountable to the Minister of Finance. The purpose of the Bill before us is to correct and improve various aspects of the Financial Services Board, its structure and its functioning - to correct various provisions and delete others. The existing Act uses words like ``supervision'' and ``supervise'' on a number of occasions to describe the relationship between the executive officer and the Financial Services Board. This implies that the board controls the activities of the executive officer. The executive officer is also the registrar in terms of the regulatory laws, which imposes obligations on the executive officer as the registrar.
The present Act implies that the board has to approve all decisions made by the executive officer. In this light the approach adopted by the Bill we are seeking to approve today is that words like ``supervise'' and ``supervision'' should refer to three tiers of decision-making, as the Deputy Minister has indicated.
This being the first level of significant decisions which the board has to approve, the second level of decision-making is where the executive officer must make decisions within guidelines set by the board. The third level - which is of less significant decisions - is where the executive officer can make his or her decisions without any consultation. Since the board cannot confirm every minute decision, the separation of decisions into various categories allow for significant decisions to be taken under close supervision, less significant decisions to be taken within guidelines and routine decisions to be taken freely without any consultation again.
Secondly, section 3 of the current Act states that the board should exercise control, in terms of any law, over the activities of the financial institutions and over financial services. This is not correct as the board does not exercise such control. The Bill before us is trying to state unambiguously that the board is to supervise the compliance, within the financial regulatory laws, of those parties to whom these laws apply.
The committee had a very lengthy discussion over one of the new functions of the board, that is, investor education. The committee was very happy with the inclusion of investor education. This will help ordinary people to know and understand which products they are getting themselves into and what services they are entitled to as ordinary South African citizens as it relates to their investments and other things. We also welcome the idea of the helpline because it is also going to help people to be further able to consult the Financial Services Board from time to time. The existing Act also prescribes that the President appoints a member of the board. The Deputy Minister has spoken about the issue that it was an unnecessary burden on the President. Therefore the Bill seeks to make sure that the Minister of Finance performs this function.
Lastly, in terms of the present Act, the board has the right to impose levies on financial institutions and it is not required to adopt a consultative approach in this regard. But the Bill before us today provides for a compulsory consultative process prior to imposing levies if this is necessary. This is in line with upholding the democratic values and principles of our Constitution that are giving people the right to comment on issues that will affect them such as the imposition of levies and so forth. Therefore the select committee is convinced that the Bill and the amendments that are brought before us are correct, and we ask that the House supports the Bill.