Regulatory Alerts2020-04-03
FSCA Communication 15 of 2020: Impact of COVID-19 on FMA Compliance
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority extends statutory compliance deadlines for accounting records, audits, and JSE listing requirements to address COVID-19 disruptions. Regulated entities with financial year-ends from December 2019 to March 2020 receive extended audit submission dates of May or June 2020, while JSE-listed issuers obtain a uniform two-month extension for provisional statements, AGM notices, annual reports, and debt filings. These adjustments apply irrespective of prior JSE-granted extensions and remain in force until the newly specified deadlines.
FSCA COMMUNICATION 15 OF 2020 (FM) - Supervision 3 April 2020 IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON COMPLIANCE WITH VARIOUS REQUIREMENTS OF THE FINANCIAL MARKETS ACT, 2012, (ACT NO. 19 OF 2012) (“FMA”)
- BACKGROUND The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (the Authority) acknowledges the impact of COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown on South Africa in general and the financial services industry specifically. As a result, the Authority hereby communicates arrangements in respect of extending the period to comply with various requirements contained in the FMA.
- EXTENSION OF PERIOD REFERRED TO IN SECTION 90 OF THE FMA (ACCOUNTING RECORDS AND AUDIT) READ WITH PARAGRAPH 8 OF BOARD NOTICE 96 OF 2013 2.1 The Authority will extend the period referred to in section 90 of the FMA read with paragraph 8 of Board Notice 96 of 2013 (BN 96) within which a regulated person must cause the accounting records and annual financial statements referred to in section 90 of the FMA to be audited, in line with the extended dates as per paragraph 2.1.3 below. 2.2 This extension will apply to all regulated persons that are required to cause the accounting records and annual financial statements referred to in section 90 of the FMA to be audited between 31 March 2020 and 30 April 2020. 2.3 The extended submission dates that will be provided for are set out in the table below: Financial Year-end Date for compliance as per section 90 / BN 96 Extended date 31 December 2019 31 March 2020 31 May 2020 31 January 2020 30 April 2020 30 June 2020
- EXTENSION OF PERIOD TO COMPLY WITH VARIOUS TIMEFRAMES REFERRED TO IN THE JSE LISTING REQUIREMENTS MADE UNDER SECTION 11 OF THE FMA 3.1 The Authority will extend the periods for compliance with the timeframes contained in the following requirements in the JSE Listing Requirements and the JSE Debt Listing Requirements: Requirement Abbreviated description
JSE Listing Requirements Paragraph 3.16 Publishing of provisional annual financial statements JSE Listing Requirements Paragraph 3.19 Distribution of notice of annual general meeting and financial statements to holders of securities JSE Listing Requirements Paragraph 19.20 Publishing of annual financial statements on website JSE Debt Listing Requirements Paragraphs 7.4 and 7.5 Submission of audited financial statements to the JSE 3.2 All the timeframes contained in the above requirements will be extended for a period of 2 months in respect of issuers with 31 December 2019, 31 January 2020, 29 February 2020 and 31 March 2020 financial year ends, and will apply irrespective of any extensions that may already have been granted to individual issuers by the JSE. 4. CONTACT For more information regarding this Communication please contact Michael Kabai via email at Michael.Kabai@fsca.co.za or telephone at (012) 422 2964.