Kamlana new head of financial regulator
Senior Reserve Bank official Unathi Kamlana has been appointed commissioner of the regulatory authority for the financial sector by finance minister Tito Mboweni.
He will head the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for a period of five years. Mboweni has also appointed Astrid Ludin as deputy commissioner for a five-year term, saying on Thursday the two positions “are crucial in contributing towards the integrity of financial markets and institutions, and the fair treatment of customers by such institutions”.
Kamlana is currently head of the department responsible for policy, statistics and industry support at the Prudential Authority of the Reserve Bank. Ludin is head of the financial markets and digital innovation practice at DNA Economics.
The two will be responsible for “building a new and large organisation that will oversee the emergence of an inclusive and transformed financial sector regulated by a robust framework that promotes fair customer treatment”.
The Treasury said “the appointment of Mr Kamlana and Ms Ludin marks the end of a three-year transitional process to establish permanent, top leadership for the FSCA, after its establishment on April 1 2018. The Financial Sector Regulator Act allows for the appointment of a commissioner and up to four deputy commissioners of the FSCA, and the process of appointing two or three additional deputy commissioners is at an advanced stage.”
Kamlana worked extensively on the implementation of the Twin Peaks reforms of the regulation of the financial sector from 2011 to 2018.
A former deputy registrar of banks, he is a member of the financial stability committee, the standing committee for the revision of the National Payment System Act, and co-chair of the financial markets implementation committee at the Bank, and has served on various committees of the Financial Stability Board — an international body that makes recommendations about the global financial system.
He holds an MCom in taxation from Rhodes University, an MSc in finance and economic policy from the University of London, a BCom in economics and information systems from Rhodes University, and a postgraduate diploma in taxation from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Ludin is a former deputy director-general at the department of trade, industry & competition, and was the commissioner of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) from May 2011 to April 2015.
As CEO of the CIPC, she was tasked with the merger of two government components with different organisational cultures, and the modernisation of the office and its transformation into a regulator.
Ludin holds an MA in international affairs from Columbia University in New York and a BA (Hons) in politics, philosophy and economics from York University in the UK.
The Treasury said the shortlisting panel recommended both Kamlana and Ludin for appointment as commissioner, with the choice being left to Mboweni as to who would be the commissioner and who the deputy.
There was an urgent challenge in the high court in Pretoria to the selection and shortlisting of candidates by the Open Secrets and Unpaid Benefits Campaign in October 2020.
It sought to interdict the panel from proceeding with its work on the grounds that it wanted access to be granted to the media and civil society to the shortlisting and interviewing process. This aspect of the application was dismissed.