Farzana Badat

Co-Chair, Standards and Supervisory Practices Committee
Deputy Commissioner, Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa

Farzana is Deputy Commissioner at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the dedicated market conduct and market integrity regulator for South Africa’s financial system. She was appointed by the Minister of Finance on 1 December 2021 and is part of the Executive Committee responsible for the overall policy direction, strategic oversight and operational management of the FSCA. She Chairs the FSCA’s Strategic Management Committee and represents the FSCA on various international standard setting and collaboration forums.

She is also responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of harmonised licensing and supervisory risk frameworks across financial institutions including financial conglomerates, banks and payment providers, investment providers and asset managers, life and non-life insurers and insurance groups, micro- and access product providers, crypto asset service providers and financial advisors and intermediaries, as well as overseeing the FSCA’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing unit and General Counsel’s Office.

She is Co-Chair of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors’ (IAIS) Standards and Supervisory Practices Committee, with a particular focus on global standard setting, supervisory capacity building and implementation support for Emerging Markets and Developing Economies. She also sits on the Executive Committee of the IAIS and the Governing Council of the International Financial Consumer Protection Network (FinCoNet), and is a member of the IAIS’ Implementation Assessment Committee and Supervisory Forum.

Farzana’s professional experience spans multiple private and public institutions, locally and internationally in both developed and emerging economies. She was previously Senior Policy Advisor for conduct risk, financial technology and digital transformation at the IAIS in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to that, she was Divisional Executive responsible for Conduct of Business Supervision across the financial sector and headed up the regulatory frameworks and insurance conduct supervision departments at the FSCA and its predecessor, the Financial Services Board. She was also Head of Regulatory Risk and Compliance at a large financial services group where she established the second line regulatory risk and compliance function, and data protection and combined assurance frameworks for the group’s non-life insurance entity. While at a global audit and advisory firm, she led and participated in several regulatory and technology risk assessment, consumer protection and change implementation projects for various institutions across the financial, telecommunications, retail, mining and public sectors. She has sat on various Boards in ex officio capacities and has extensive experience in strategy formulation, corporate governance, change management, financial technology, regulatory policy and organisational design.

Farzana graduated summa cum laude with a Law degree from the University of Natal-Durban in South Africa, holds a Master of Laws degree in International Law from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, USA, and completed her Master of Laws coursework in Human Rights and Constitutional Litigation, Internet, E-commerce and Technology Law and Bioethics at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. She has also completed the Senior Executive Program Africa (SEPA) aimed at designing effective leadership and competitive corporate strategies to drive regional and international growth for African and other emerging markets, at Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.