FSCA provisionally withdraws licence of Nessfin Investments
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has provisionally withdrawn the licence of Nessfin Investments Ltd.
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The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has provisionally withdrawn the licence of Nessfin Investments Ltd and Finance Group (Pty).
The company is no longer authorised to conduct financial services.
This comes following concerns about its involvement with an unauthorised financial services provider operating in the crypto asset sector.
Nessfin was authorised to offer a limited range of financial services related to crypto assets. However, in August 2024, the FSCA discovered that Nessfin was in possession and control of funds collected by My Wealth Legatus (Pty) Ltd (Legatus), a company not authorised by the FSCA and under investigation for conducting unregistered financial services.
The FSCA has previously warned the public about My Wealth Legatus, suspecting the company of offering unregistered financial services and operating as a bank without the necessary authorisation.
"Based on the evidence collected by the FSCA thus far, it appears that Nessfin conducted financial services business beyond what it is permitted by its current authorisation," FSCA said.
"Also, in terms of governing law (being the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act), an FSP is prohibited from conducting financial services related business with any person that is not correctly authorised by the FSCA. Based on the nature of its relationship with Legatus, the FSCA is of the view that Nessfin also contravened the FAIS Act in this way"
The financial watchdog also confirmed that the investigations into Nessfin are ongoing.
"The investigation into Nessfin is ongoing, but at this stage, the FSCA has material concerns about Nessfin’s business. Thus, the FSCA decided to provisionally withdraw the FSP licence of Nessfin as it is satisfied on reasonable grounds that substantial prejudice to clients and/or the general public may occur if the licence is not provisionally withdrawn,"
mthobisi.nozulela@iol.co.za
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