South African Reserve Bank confirms 32 Banks Act guidance notes remain effective for 2026

The South African Reserve Bank issued its annual notice under the Banks Act setting out which previously issued Banks Act guidance notes continue to apply to banks, branches of foreign institutions, controlling companies, eligible institutions and their auditors. Guidance notes are deemed withdrawn, terminated or replaced unless they are explicitly confirmed as remaining effective in the first guidance note of the year. The notice confirms that 32 guidance notes, spanning 2008 to 2025, remain in effect and retain their original numbers and dates. The retained guidance covers areas including personal account trading, electronic communications with supervisors, director development, enhanced scrutiny and sanctions expectations, stress testing, market risk back-testing for internal models approach banks, covered bonds, foreign exchange settlement risk, risk data aggregation and reporting, internal ratings-based and credit risk model guidance, outsourcing, ICAAP expectations, expected credit loss-related guidance, high-quality liquid assets, corporate governance, capital arbitrage transactions, cloud computing and offshoring of data, the committed liquidity facility framework, financial crime controls and risk assessments (including correspondent banking and proliferation financing risk), climate-related governance and risk practices and climate-related disclosures, and criteria for identifying outlier banks for interest rate risk in the banking book. Institutions are requested to retain copies of the confirmed guidance notes, make the notice available to their auditors, and return an acknowledgement of receipt signed by both the institution’s Chief Executive Officer and the auditors.