Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003 (Act No. 53 of 2003)

It is recorded that the Minister of Trade and Industry has previously gazetted the Financial Sector Charter as a Transformation Charter under Section 12 of the Act.

The Financial Sector Charter Council is of the opinion that this Sector Code meets all of the requirements of paragraph 3 of Code 000, Statement 003 of the CoGP and has applied to the Minister of Trade and Industry to publish the Financial Sector Code under Section 9(5) of the Act to allow for public comment and for gazetting as a Sector Code under Section 9(1) of the Act.

In conceptualising, implementing and measuring any B-BBEE initiatives, financial institutions and other interested parties must apply this Financial Sector Code read together with the CoGP issued under Section 9(1) of the B-BBEE Act on 9 February 2007. While the gazetting under Section 9(1) of the Act of this Sector Code means that it is binding and takes precedence over any other Code, including the CoGP, the CoGP is applicable only to the extent that this Financial Sector Code is silent on a particular aspect of B-BBEE that is covered in the CoGP.

This Financial Sector Code shall remain in effect until amended, substituted or repealed. The Minister of Finance will conduct an interim review of the transformation progress made by the sector as a whole, in respect of this Financial Sector Code after the end of the third year from the commencement date of this statement; in addition to the aforementioned, annual reviews will take place to monitor the implementation of B-BBEE throughout the economy.

The commencement date of the Financial Sector Code will be 1 January 2012. It will be applicable to all measurement periods commencing on or after 1 January 2012. Measurement periods commencing prior to 1  January 2012 will still be measured/verified in terms of the general CoGP. This Financial Sector Code will be binding for all measurement periods ending prior to 31 December 2017, when a full review of the progress made against this Financial Sector Code will be undertaken by the Minister of Trade and Industry and the Minister of Finance. The end of the third year (the date for the interim review) will therefore be 31 December 2014.