At the request of the National Treasuryof the Republic of South Africa, the World Bank Group (WBG)undertook a Retail Banking Diagnostic focusing on theprovision of consumer transactional accounts and fixeddeposits by retail banks in South Africa. The aim of theRetail Banking Diagnostic was to identify potentialdeficiencies from a fair-treatment perspective in banks’provision of such accounts and deposits, and whether and howany identified major fair-treatment deficiencies couldappropriately be addressed through market conductregulation, having regard to international good practicesand the South African market context. A WBG team visitedSouth Africa in April 2017 and undertook discussions toinform the diagnostic with regulators, a range of banksoffering consumer transactional accounts and fixed deposits,relevant financial sector ombud schemes, and industry andconsumer bodies. Further discussions and inquiries anddesk-based research were undertaken following the visit.Except where stated otherwise, the report reflects researchundertaken up to September 2017, and it does not coverdevelopments after that time. This report sets out thefindings of the diagnostic and provides recommendations forregulatory improvements and related measures forconsideration by the South African authorities. Where thereport recommends legal measures to address an issue, it isenvisaged that these would be implemented either throughfair-treatment conduct standards made by the FSCA pursuantto section 106 of the recently passed Financial SectorRegulation Act 2017 (FSR Act) or, in due course, through theConduct of FinancialInstitutions Bill (COFI Bill) beingdeveloped by the National Treasury, and subordinatelegislation, such as Standards, to be developed under theresulting COFI Act (referred to collectively in the reportas the “COFI/FSR Laws”).
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