Martin Endjala
Feedback on the concerns of the public and stakeholders regarding the Financial Institutions and Markets Act will be shared by the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) during the last quarter of this year.
This was announced by Namfisaá corporate communication and consumer education manager, Victory Muranda in a media statement on Friday.
Muranda also said that the controversial regulations regarding retirement benefits claims will also not be introduced on 1 October as initially planned.
The public was particularly opposed to the draft regulation that persons younger than 55 years can only claim 25 percent of their pension savings with 75 percent payable when they reach 55 years.
In the statement, Namfisa downplays the controversy that the provision caused and make no mention of it.
At the time of the spat between the public and Namfisa, National Union of Namibian Workers secretary general, Job Munairo called for the rejection of the Act.
“Our call for this rejection is based on the fact that our members are expected to take care of their
education and health as well as that of their children using their pension savings,” Muniaro emphasized at the time.
He said that the existing regulations allow even conditional withdrawals from pension funds to mitigate financial hardships, economic and other needs as a result of the high rate of unemployment
among others, insisting that, in the mid of all these, the FIMA Act seeks to curtail such opportunities.
The objectives of FIMA, according to Namfisa is to consolidate and harmonize the laws regulating financial institutions, financial intermediaries and financial markets in Namibia.
Muranda explained that under these reforms, Namfisa will shift from compliance or rules supervision to risks based supervision (RSB).
Additionally, these will allow the entity to focus on matters that poses great risk in meeting its regulatory objectives due to its limited resources.
