On 21 July 2016, National Treasury released the third draft of
the regulations under the Financial Markets Act, 2012 (the
"Third Draft Regulations"). The previous
draft of the regulations was released in June 2015. The Third Draft
Regulations are, together with pending legislation, aimed at
progressing the financial sector reform strategy for South Africa.
This is in line with the country's commitment to the G20
obligations to make financial markets safer and to regulate
over-the-counter ("OTC")
derivatives.
The Third Draft Regulations were accompanied by a number of
draft notices relating to OTC derivatives providers and trade
repositories. A new draft of the notice relating to margin
requirements for non-centrally cleared OTC derivatives, which is of
particular interest to participants in the South African
derivatives market, was not released.
