In an industry long fatigued by regulation, compliance has often been viewed as a burden, something to be managed, minimised, or endured.

Yet, our recent COVER webinar, moderated by Tony van Niekerk, challenged this mindset head-on, reframing compliance not as a cost of doing business, but as a strategic differentiator.

Bringing together perspectives from Anton Swanepoel, Entrepreneur, coach, author and Founder of Trusted Advisers; Sean Barrett, CE of FSPHub; Jaco Moolman, Founder of Lighthouse Risk Consulting and Craig Grasko, Business Development Director at FSPHub, the discussion unpacked the looming Conduct of Financial Institutions (COFI) framework, and more importantly, what it demands of advisory businesses beyond technical compliance.

COFI Is coming, but waiting is the real risk - Anton Swanepoel’s message was both practical and urgent: the industry is closer to COFI than many realise, and the biggest mistake businesses can make is to wait.

While the exact timing of promulgation remains uncertain, the direction is not. COFI will fundamentally reshape how financial services providers operate, extending accountability beyond intermediaries to product providers, and embedding conduct, governance, and culture at the core of regulation.  

What makes COFI particularly challenging is not just its scale, but its scope. It is not a new layer of compliance, it is an evolution of FAIS “on steroids,” consolidating existing requirements while introducing heightened expectations around customer outcomes, governance structures, and accountability.

Yet, Swanepoel’s most important insight was not about the regulation itself, but about approach. Businesses that treat COFI as a once-off compliance project will struggle. Those that break it down into manageable components, starting now, will not only cope, but potentially thrive.

The elephant in the room: complexity vs capacity - A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the tension between regulatory complexity and operational capacity, particularly for small and mid-sized advisory businesses.

Jaco Moolman brought this into sharp focus. From a compliance practitioner’s perspective, the challenge is not simply understanding regulation but embedding it into daily business activity in a way that is practical, consistent, and measurable.

Compliance, in this sense, is not documentation, it is behaviour. The shift under COFI places increasing emphasis on demonstrating outcomes: how advice is delivered, how decisions are made, and how customer interests are prioritised. This requires more than policies; it requires systems, processes, and critically evidence.

Without reporting, Moolman argued, businesses are effectively operating blind. They cannot identify risks, measure compliance, or improve performance. In a COFI environment, this lack of visibility becomes a material risk in itself.

Technology as an enabler, not a silver bullet - The role of technology, as highlighted by Sean Barrett and Craig Grasko of FSPHub, is central to solving this challenge, but not in isolation.

Technology can bring structure, consistency, and traceability into advisory businesses. It enables workflows, audit trails, and a single view of the client, ensuring that every interaction is recorded and accessible. This level of transparency is increasingly critical in a regulatory environment that demands accountability.

However, the panel was clear: Technology alone cannot ensure compliance. Systems are only as effective as the processes they support and the people who manage them. Human judgement, ethical decision-making, and leadership remain at the heart of compliance. Technology can enable, streamline, and monitor, but it cannot replace responsibility.