Anischa Breytenbach, Masthead Compliance Consultant, and Johan le Roux, Masthead Compliance Officer

Conducting a business-wide review is a powerful tool to strengthen governance, align with Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) principles and build long-term resilience. Here’s how financial service providers (FSPs) can use the review process to meet current and future regulatory expectations while delivering better customer outcomes.

FSPs are familiar with the requirement to conduct annual client reviews – providing clients with up-to-date product information, fee disclosures and performance summaries. However, focusing only on client reviews can lead to missed risks and opportunities elsewhere in the business. A broader, business-wide review helps FSPs identify conduct risks and operational gaps that may not surface through client reviews alone. To truly embed TCF and prepare for evolving regulatory expectations, FSPs should also regularly review key areas such as governance, compliance oversight, risk management, product suitability and staff competence.

With regulatory pressures increasing and customer expectations evolving, comprehensive business-wide reviews are becoming essential – not only for compliance, but also as a strategic opportunity to assess whether the business is delivering fair outcomes and operating efficiently.

This article outlines what FSPs need to know and do to get the most out of a broader review process.

Understanding current and upcoming legal requirements

FSPs are required by the General Code of Conduct (GCOC) under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act to provide each client with a written statement at least once a year. This annual client review must include:

• the financial products involved,
• any ongoing monetary obligations,
• the main benefits of those products,
• investment values and accessible amounts (if applicable), and
• any ongoing remuneration received by the provider.

This requirement ensures transparency, supports informed decision-making and confirms the ongoing suitability of advice in relation to financial products. However, the review process shouldn’t stop there.

FSPs who are committed to TCF should also conduct broader reviews of their operations. While the FAIS Act and GCOC do not explicitly mandate a full “business-wide annual review”, several provisions imply the need for ongoing oversight across all aspects of the FSP’s operations. Examples include:

• Section 11 of the GCOC, which requires FSPs to establish and maintain control measures to manage risks and regularly monitor the effectiveness of these controls. Reviewing business processes helps ensure that these measures remain appropriate and effective in managing risk across the business.
• Section 13(2)(b) of the FAIS Act, which places responsibility on FSPs to take reasonable steps to ensure that their Representatives comply with the applicable Codes of Conduct and other laws governing the conduct of business. This can include, but is not limited to, ensuring that Representatives are adequately trained and supervised.

These are not the only applicable provisions – other sections across the FAIS Act and GCOC also support the need for comprehensive oversight, including areas like conflict-of-interest management, complaints resolution and disclosure obligations.

In addition, other legislation also requires regular reviews. For example, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) obliges FSPs to regularly review and update their Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP). However, for the purposes of this article, the focus remains on the FAIS Act and preparation for the upcoming Conduct of Financial Institutions (COFI) Bill.

These reviews help FSPs determine if they are still meeting licensing conditions, maintaining sound risk and governance frameworks and complying with TCF principles. A thorough review should address:

• Reviewing business information related to the authorised profile of the business, such as Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) registration, directors, Key Individuals and product categories
• Updating client records and risk profiles
• Assessing financial soundness and disclosure compliance
• Reviewing policies, procedures and the risk management plan
• Documenting changes to existing processes or documenting new ones
• Verifying suitability of advice and product offerings to the client base
• Confirming Representatives’ competence and Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
• Documenting changes to processes, or documenting new processes to address risks or other operational weaknesses

Looking ahead, the upcoming COFI Bill will significantly heighten expectations. COFI shifts from a rules-based to an outcomes-focused regulatory approach, requiring FSPs

to embed TCF principles across their entire business – from engagement and advice to product design, complaints handling and governance.

Annual reviews of key areas in the business will need to be more structured and outcome-driven, with increased scrutiny on fairness and conduct risk. The FSCA will support this shift through phased licensing and tools like the Information Regulatory System (IRS) SupTech platform.

Tips for conducting an effective review

To maximise value from your business-wide review, focus on the following key areas:

• Start with TCF: Use the six TCF outcomes as your guiding framework. Are customers confident they are treated fairly? Are your products still suitable for their target market. Is your approach and engagement appropriately segmented? Is communication clear and easy to understand?
• Assess Representative performance: Ensure that Fit and Proper requirements, CPD tracking and supervision processes are in place. These underpin both compliance and service quality.
• Use management information (MI): High-quality MI gathered during the year can help identify patterns in distribution, advice errors, product issues, customer complaints and service delivery gaps. This supports proactive management and targeted improvements.
• Review internal policies and controls: Evaluate whether conflict of interest policies, disclosure procedures and recordkeeping standards are still effective and aligned with regulatory expectations.
• Involve senior management: Governance plays a central role. Boards and key decision-makers must engage with findings, oversee remediation plans and demonstrate a commitment to fairness.
• Document findings and remedial actions clearly: Maintain detailed and accessible records of your review process, findings, decisions and follow-up actions to ensure readiness for FSCA inspections or audits.

Pitfalls to avoid

Common oversights can limit the effectiveness of the review and create compliance risks:

• Treating the review as a “tick-box” exercise: Focusing on paperwork without meaningful analysis often leads to missed conduct risks and weak TCF delivery.
• Using outdated templates: Generic documents may not reflect your business’s current risks or regulatory context, especially with COFI on the horizon.
• Neglecting customer feedback: Failing to gather or analyse client input makes it difficult to understand their experiences or assess fairness.
• Overlooking staff development: Missing CPD tracking or inadequate supervision undermines Representative competence, which directly affects the quality of advice and service.
• Ignoring root causes of complaints: Superficial responses to complaints prevent FPSs from identifying and fixing systemic issues that may affect many clients.

By avoiding these pitfalls, FSPs can conduct more meaningful reviews that drive real improvement.

Beyond compliance – the broader business value

When approached thoughtfully, a business-wide review can go beyond compliance – it can become a powerful business improvement tool. Benefits of this approach include clearer and more client-focused onboarding and disclosure practices, advice frameworks tailored to client needs, streamlined complaints processes, improved product design and a stronger internal culture rooted in fairness and accountability. These outcomes support improved client retention, trust and reputational strength.

Ultimately, the annual review is a strategic opportunity. For smaller and larger FSPs alike, the key is to make the review meaningful, data-informed and aligned with not only its strategic business objectives but also with TCF principles.

In doing so, FSPs not only demonstrate regulatory compliance but also reinforce their commitment to their customers, improve internal processes and position themselves for growth in an evolving regulatory environment.

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