On 25 April 2018, the Economic Freedom Fighters proposed, in
parliament, a Banks Act Amendment Bill (the "Proposed
Bill") to amend the Banks Act, 1990 (the
"Banks Act"), which has since been
published on the Parliamentary Monitoring Group website. If the
Proposed Bill is adopted, it will become possible for state owned
companies to register as a bank or a bank controlling company, and
to carry out the "business of a bank" in terms of the
Banks Act. Essentially, the Proposed Bill aims to achieve this
purpose by inserting the words "or a state owned
company/companies" into relevant provisions.
As the Banks Act is currently written, only public companies may
register as a bank or a bank controlling company. Therefore, state
owned companies have been required to undergo the lengthy process
of obtaining various exemptions in order to perform certain
activities that constitute the "business of a bank". The
proposed amendments remove this barrier and pave the way
