Financial Matters Amendment Bill B1-2019

12th June 2019

To amend—

● the Insolvency Act, 1936, so as to provide for a process when a creditor realizes his or her security in terms of a master agreement and for a power for the Master to deal with disputes of the preference by trustees;

● the Military Pensions Act, 1976, so as to provide for all categories of spouses and for life partners of members by amending, inserting and deleting certain definitions; and by providing for both genders throughout the Act and regulating the registration of a spouse to qualify for benefits upon the death of a member;

● the Banks Act, 1990, so as to regard certain state-owned companies as public companies for purposes of the application of the Banks Act; to determine prerequisites for these companies and their holding companies to qualify to apply for establishment as a bank; and to provide for inconsistencies between the Banks Act and certain other legislation with respect to state-owned companies;

● the Government Employees Pension Law, 1996, so as to insert and delete certain definitions; to replace the divorce debt approach with a pensionable service reduction approach to adjust the benefit of a member of the Government Employees Pension Fund following a pension interest assigned to a former spouse of the member as result of a decree of divorce or for the dissolution of a customary marriage; and to provide for a transitional measure; and

● the Auditing Profession Act, 2005, so as to strengthen the governance of the regulatory board; to strengthen the investigating and disciplinary processes; to provide for the power to enter and search premises and to subpoena persons with information required for an investigation or disciplinary process; and to provide for the sharing of information amongst the regulators of the auditing profession.