Fazana Badat

Deputy Commissioner, Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa

Farzana is currently Deputy Commissioner at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa. She was appointed to this role by the Minister of Finance on 1 December 2021 and is part of the Executive Committee responsible for overseeing the overall strategic and operational management of the FSCA. She is also responsible for the development and implementation of harmonised licensing and supervisory risk frameworks for a range of financial institutions including banks, investment providers, life and non-life insurers, microinsurers, and insurance intermediaries, as well as oversight of the FSCA’s Office of General Counsel.

Farzana’s financial sector policy and supervisory experience spans multiple private and public institutions, locally and internationally in both developed and emerging economies. She was previously Senior Policy Advisor responsible for conduct risk, financial technology and digital transformation at the IAIS Secretariat in Basel. 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 insurance 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 financial sector regulatory and technology risk assessment and implementation projects for a number of institutions including banks, insurers and investment firms.

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.