Banks lobby DTI

The Banking Association SA is liaising with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) over the new Companies Act, as the sector cannot comply with some requirements that necessitate IT system overhauls.
The legislation – an upgrade to a three-decade-old law – will allow businesses to register names that contain symbols such as +, &, #, @ and %, as well as longer entity names. It was initially meant to come into force this month, but has now been delayed until next April.

Nicky Lala Mohan, the association's GM for legal and regulatory affairs, says the banking sector in SA has had some difficulty with the name changes, which the association has brought to the DTI's attention.
The Banking Association SA is an industry body representing all registered local banks. It is the mandated representative of the sector. It addresses industry issues through lobbying, policy influence, research and development, and engaging with stakeholders.
Lala Mohan explains that the banks' IT systems cannot cope with the new characters. “We are most definitely unable to process those characters.”
However, the Companies and Intellectual Property Office, which will be relaunched as the Company and Intellectual Property Commission when the Act comes into effect, needs to be able to register names with characters before the banks can open accounts with the new style names, says Lala Mohan.
With the postponement of the implementation of the Act, he says there has been a “bit of a lull” in the engagement process. The association had been meeting with the DTI before the Act was delayed.
The association hopes the banking sector will be granted sufficient time to upgrade IT systems, says Lala Mohan. He did not know what costs could be involved.
The DTI did not respond to a request for comment on the issue yesterday.
Source: ITweb.co.za