Ombud Council AR 2026

PART B: PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

• Ombud Schemes Liaison Forum Section 188(4) of the FSR Act (2017) requires the Chief Ombud to convene quarterly meetings between the Council and all ombuds under the Council’s oversight. These meetings, styled the Ombud Schemes Liaison Forum, were successfully convened as required and managed in accordance with formal terms of reference. Representatives of the National Treasury, the FSCA and the National Credit Regulator attend the Liaison Forum meetings by invitation. • Making Ombud Council Rules In terms of section 201 of the FSR Act, the Council is empowered to make regulatory instruments in the form of Ombud Council Rules, imposing obligations on ombuds and ombud schemes in support of its mandate. The Council published and consulted on Ombud Council Rules for the Pension Funds Adjudicator during the year under review and the Rules came into operation on 4 March 2026. The Rules formalise existing practices and introduce process refinements based on the practical experience of the Pension Funds Adjudicator’s office. To allow for operational readiness, the Rules will be implemented through a phased approach, with certain Rules effective from 1 April 2027 and 1 October 2026 and all other Rules effective on 4 March 2026. 2.1.2. External challenges to service delivery • Liquidity challenges due to delayed receipt of levy income. The Council is funded solely by levies payable by financial institutions and collected on its behalf by the FSCA, in accordance with mechanisms prescribed by the Levies Acts, read with Chapter 16 of the FSR Act. These provisions include a complex, protracted process for publicly consulting on budget and levy proposals, submitting them to Parliament, and obtaining the Minister of Finance’s approval of the proposals. As a result of these processes, which are mandatory and outside the Council’s control, levy income for the 2025/26 financial year only began to flow to the Council in the fourth quarter of the financial year. To mitigate the resulting liquidity challenge, the Council implemented a stringent cash flow management plan,

limiting expenditure to contractual commitments until levy invoicing by the FSCA could commence and including monthly monitoring by to the Audit and Risk Committee. This impacted service delivery, particularly regarding consumer awareness activities, resulting in the Council’s inability to meet its Annual Performance Plan target of conducting a baseline study on consumer awareness of the ombud system. This initiative has been deferred to the 2026/27 financial year. Certain non-contractual internal plans, including some staff and Board training and development interventions, could also not be delivered. Despite the cash flow constraint, the Council succeeded in meeting the majority of its consumer education and awareness APP targets through concerted efforts in the final quarter. Looking ahead, the risk of this liquidity challenge arising again has been mitigated through a combination of measures: The Council applied to the National Treasury for and was granted approval to retain prior-year surpluses to accumulate a cash flow contingency reserve, which will be maintained by requesting retention of future accumulated cash surpluses on an annual basis, and we are working closely with the National Treasury to support their development of a more streamlined legislative levy approval process. It should be noted that the above protracted levy approval process applies to all levy-funded entities established by the FSR Act, including the FSCA itself and the statutory ombud schemes the Council oversees. The Council monitors impacts on the schemes and their risk mitigation plans. • Delays in promulgation of the COFI Bill The persistent delays in finalising the Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill and the resultant delay in effecting proposed consequential amendments to the Council’s founding legislation (Chapter 14 of the FSR Act) continued to hamper the Council’s scope for proactive exercise of some of its functions. This includes limiting our scope to streamline some aspects of ombud scheme processes and to address identified gaps in the overall coverage of the ombud system. Nonetheless, as highlighted in paragraph 2.1.1 above and elsewhere in this report, positive strides were made in furthering these areas of the Council’s mandate, using our existing regulatory toolkit and through collaborative stakeholder management.

Ombud Council 2025/26 Annual Report

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