Criteria for registration as a payment agent
| (1) | A person who applies for registration as a payment distribution agent in terms of section 44A of the Act must submit to the National Credit Regulator:— |
| (a) | a completed application in Form 46; |
| (b) | any additional information required in the application form; and |
| (c) | the applicable application fee as set out in the schedule. |
| (2) | Any person who applies for registration must provide any information required by the National Credit Regulator in terms of section 45(2), within fifteen (15) business days after the request is delivered to the applicant. |
| (3) | The National Credit Regulator must not register a person as a payment distribution agent unless that person complies with the following requirements:— |
| (i) | maintain and impose appropriate qualification requirements for its employees or contractors who will have authority to represent it in any function of its business of collection and payment distribution; |
| (ii) | a successful payment distribution training programme approved by the National Credit Regulator and provided by an accredited institution; |
| (iii) | a training programme completed within six (6) months after the payment distribution agent has been registered by the National Credit Regulator; and |
| (iv) | comply with the training programme after registration as a payment distribution agent. |
| (i) | The payment distribution agency must have an executive director:— |
| (aa) | responsible for the day to day operations, with five (5) years experience in dealing with the business of collecting, distributing payments, accounting or financial services; |
| (bb) | who is a person with good record of managing the finances of a company; and |
| (cc) | responsible for the day to day management of applications. |
| (i) | A person applying to be registered as a payment distribution agent must:— |
| (aa) | have sufficient human, financial and operational resources to carry out the functions of payment distribution agent efficiently and effectively; |
| (bb) | put in place adequate resources, systems and procedures to carry out the functions of payment distribution efficiently and effectively; |
| (cc) | comply with the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003 (Act 53 of 2003) as amended; |
| (dd) | be registered with the South African Revenue Services and have a valid tax clearance certificate; |
| (ee) | be a company incorporated in terms of the Companies Act, 2008 (Act 71 of 2008) or Close Corporations Act, 1984 (Act 69 of 1984) or Cooperatives Act 2005 (Act 14 of 2005); |
| (ff) | have a board of directors consisting of not less than three (3) nonexecutive directors, one of whom must be independent, with qualifications and experience of not less than two (2) years in the accounting, auditing or legal profession; |
| (i) | is not under the age of eighteen (18) years; |
| (ii) | is not subject to an order of mental unfitness or disordered; |
| (iii) | was not removed from office of trust on account of misconduct relating to fraud or the misappropriation of money, whether in the Republic or equivalent jurisdictions; |
| (iv) | was not a director or member of a governing body of an entity at the time that such entity:— |
| (aa) | was involuntarily deregistered in terms of public Regulation; |
| (bb) | brought the consumer credit industry into disrepute; or |
| (cc) | acted with disregard for consumer rights generally. |
| (4) | A person applying for registration as a payment distribution agent must not have been convicted during the previous five (5) years, in the Republic or elsewhere, of:— |
| (a) | theft, fraud, forgery, perjury or an offence under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004 (Act 12 of 2004), or comparable legislation of another jurisdiction; and |
| (b) | has been sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine unless the person has received a grant of amnesty or free pardon for the offence. |
| (5) | A payment distribution-agent must have a minimum capital amount of five million (R5m)for investment in the establishment and operation of the payment distribution agency and proof of this amount must be provided in the form of a bank guaranteed cheque to the National Credit Regulator at the time of application. |
| (6) | A person applying for registration as a payment distribution agent must have sufficient insurance to compensate consumers and credit providers in the event of loss or damage:— |
| (a) | The compensatory value as stipulated in sub-regulation 10A (6) shall be equivalent to the aggregate amount collected for distribution occasioned by the conduct of the payment distribution agent. |
| (7) | A person applying for registration as a payment distribution agent who conducts a debt counselling business must:— |
| (a) | demonstrate that the businesses of debt counselling and payment distribution will be operationally independent of each other and managed independently by different persons; and |
| (b) | demonstrate that the payment distribution is not made in respect of consumers under debt review in his or her debt counselling business. |
Transitional period for a payment distribution agent already registered
| (8) | A payment distribution agent that is already registered must:— |
| (a) | commit to train his or her employees in line with the training courses or programmes approved by the National Credit Regulator or with an institution accredited by the National Credit Regulator; and |
| (b) | comply to training programme of its employees within a period of six (6) months after he or she has been registered, failure which shall constitute a prohibited conduct in accordance with the Act. |
Duties and obligations of a payment distribution agent
| (9) | Payment distribution agent must:— |
| (a) | implement, maintain and utilise an electronic payment distribution system that offers the functionality determined by the National Credit Regulator in its conditions of registration and any guidelines that may be issued by the National Credit Regulator from time to time; |
| (b) | comply with the reporting requirements to consumers, credit providers, debt counsellors and the National Credit Regulator in the manner and form determined by the National Credit Regulator in its conditions of registration and any guidelines that may be issued by the National Credit Regulator from time to time; |
| (c) | on a monthly basis provide a statement to the consumer reflecting the following information:— |
| (i) | date of receipt of payment; |
| (ii) | amount of payment received; |
| (iii) | names of the consumer's credit providers who received payments during the relevant month and the actual amounts paid; |
| (vi) | outstanding balances under the debt re-arrangement plan, court, or tribunal order as the case may be, reflecting a disclaimer to the effect that the outstanding balances may be adjusted from time to time after the debt counsellor has provided the payment distribution agent with updated transactions from credit providers including, interests; |
| (vii) | fees of the payment distribution agent; |
| (viii) | payments made to the debt counsellor; and |
| (ix) | payments made to the credit providers. |
| (d) | provide a monthly statement referred to in sub-regulation 8(c), in a manner chosen by the consumer which may be in the form of an e-mail, short message service (sms), multi-media messaging service (mms), fax or written statement; |
| (e) | comply with any other requirements that may be imposed by the National Credit Regulator in its conditions of registration and any guidelines that may be issued by the National Credit Regulator from time to time; |
| (f) | deposit monies collected from consumers into a trust account opened at a registered bank and distribute the monies to the credit providers and debt counsellors; |
| (g) | distribute monies received within five (5) days of receipt, failure which reasons must be submitted to the National Credit Regulator. |
| (h) | open a separate trust account with a registered bank into which interest earned on monies collected from consumers is deposited. The National Credit Regulator must:— |
| (i) | open a trust account into which all interest earned on monies held by the payment distribution agent is deposited; |
| (ii) | transfer interest accrued from these monies to the trust account stipulated in sub-regulation 10A(9)(h)(i)r; and |
| (iii) | develop a policy on the usage of trust account funds for approval by the Minister of Trade and Industry. |
[Regulation 10A inserted by Notice No. R. 202, GG 38557 dated 13 March 2015]
