Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority executes New Dawn implementation plan
By Freeman Ya Ngulu.
Although total assets in the Non-bank Financial Services sector contracted by 1.2% to N$366.2 billion during 2022, the sector remained solvent and was expected to remain robust during 2023.
Quoting the Chief Executive of the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority, Mr Kenneth Matomola, the latest sectoral review in the Authority’s 2023 Annual Report, contributes the sector’s resilience to the collaborative, effective and prudent execution of the NAMFISA mandate by all staff.
Project New Dawn is one of the Authority’s legislative implementation projects, under which the new NAMFISA Act and the Financial Institutions and Markets Act, 2021 (FIMA), as well as the Risk-based Supervision Framework, are being implemented.
The activities that constitute the encouraging execution of Project New Dawn’s phase 2 are of nature of executing on its mandated of Prudential Supervision Function.
Phase 2 of Project New Dawn focuses on prudential supervision so that the Authority remains in a position to fulfil its mandate of promoting a safe and stable environment for insurance policyholders and medical aid fund members in the 2023/24 financial year.
With the continued implementation of the FIM Act, continuous engagements with industry participants, policyholders, members of medical aid funds and the general public, will form part of the focus areas for the following financial year. Commensurate with the implementation phase, the Namfisa staff continues to receive training on the new laws including the relevant rules and standards.
During the 2023/24 fiscal year, the Authority is also concentrating on the rollout and implementation of riskbased supervision based on International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17 which is effective for financial periods that commenced on or after 1 January 2023. Additional aspects of the IFRS 17 implementation include NAMFISA levy considerations, development of key performance indicators suitable for IFRS 17 reporting, and the alignment of prudential standards under FIMA for IFRS 17.
Endeavours to acquaint new and existing staff members with the core principles of insurance through the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) certifications will be continued by the Insurance and Medical Aid Funds Division which is tasked with supervising both the insurance and medical aid funds industries. The goal of this supervision is to ensur that the respective short- and longterm insurance and medical aid fund industry players adhere to the Short-term Insurance Act.
“The implementation of the new NAMFISA Act and FIMA is in the best interest of the public, given their requirements to ensure consumer protection and stability of the nonbank financial sector. These key elements are absent in the outdated laws that the new NAMFISA Act and FIMA will replace.”
The implementation date for the new NAMFISA Act and FIMA (the Acts) has been delayed, allowing for broader consultation in respect of the draft Regulation on Preservation of Retirement Benefits, as well as amendments to the Acts through the removal of reference to the Financial Adjudicator Act, which was not passed by Parliament in 2021 and is being held in abeyance by the Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises.
