OMBUD COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT 2024/25

PART B: PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

3.1 OUTCOME 1: ADEQUATE CAPACITY AND CAPABILITY IN PLACE TO PERFORM STATUTORY FUNCTIONS The two-year target of ensuring that support functions are performed and contracted by the Ombud Council itself has been achieved, with the Ombud Council having achieved operational independence. All planned staff appointments have been made, and policies and processes are in place to enable the Ombud Council to manage its own financial and human resource processes, and to procure infrastructure and outsourced services using its own policies. 3.2 OUTCOME 2: EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK EXISTS The Ombud Council’s Board and governance Committees functioned effectively and productively throughout the year, in line with their documented terms of reference and applicable FSR Act and PFMA governance obligations. A wide range of policies was approved by the Board. The procurement of a Board secretariat service provider was concluded to commence duty at the start of the 2025/26 financial year. 3.3 OUTCOME 3: SUSTAINABLE FUNDING IS ENSURED The target of finalising and operationalising a levy funding model that complies with PFMA, FSR Act and Levies Acts prescripts has been achieved, with a MoU in place between the Ombud Council and the FSCA and levy collection arrangements fully implemented. The Ombud Council has also complied with FSR Act and Levies Act requirements for consulting on and publishing its levy proposals, budget and expenditure assessments. The annual and two-year target for this Outcome is to ensure that Ombud Council funding is managed and controlled according to PFMA prescripts, as evidenced by clean audits. Excellent progress has been made in this regard, with the Ombud Council’s external audits for both the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years, the first two years of being PFMA listed, yielding clean audit opinions. As set out in more detail in section 6 of Part C, an internal audit function is in place and audits of several processes and controls have been performed, with no significant findings emerging from the reviews of internal finance controls and procurement processes. Internal audit has also confirmed that all internal audit findings from the prior year were satisfactorily resolved. 3.4 OUTCOME 4: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND CONTROLS EXIST

3.5 OUTCOME 5: JURISDICTIONAL GAPS, OVERLAPS AND INCONSISTENCIES BETWEEN SCHEME PROCESSES REDUCED The focus for this outcome was on making regulatory instruments, in the form of Ombud Council Rules, in accordance with a documented annual Regulatory Plan. By the end of the two-year period the intention had been to complete two sets of Ombud Council Rules: Rules for the FAIS Ombud; and Rules for the Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator (OPFA). The target in relation to the FAIS Ombud was met, with new Rules coming into operation in the year under review, to replace previous Rules made two decades ago under the FAIS Act. Amongst other enhancements, they provide financial customers who have been prejudiced by poor conduct of financial advisers with better redress, by increasing the FAIS Ombud’s maximum compensation limit from an outdated and inadequate level of R800 000 to a more meaningful R3.5 million. The target in respect of Rules for the OPFA was not met, due to a combination of resource constraints and a decision to delay the making of the Rules to allow the pensions industry and the Pension Funds Adjudicator to focus on implementation of the “two pot” retirement fund withdrawal system, which came into effect during the 2024/25 year. Informal consultation on these Rules commenced and their completion has been deferred to 2025/26. BETWEEN OMBUD SCHEME REPORTING PROCESSES REDUCED The two-year target of industry scheme reports on their complaints data being submitted in accordance with an aligned reporting framework was achieved, with the NFO having begun reporting in accordance with the finalised framework. Good progress was also made in extending the aligned framework to the two statutory schemes, the FAIS Ombud and the OPFA. The FAIS Ombud has already begun providing reports substantially in line with the framework, and both statutory schemes will formally adopt the reporting framework from the first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year. 3.6 OUTCOME 6: INCONSISTENCIES

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OMBUD COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT 2024/25