Please share this letter on behalf of Rene van Wyk, the Registrar of Banks, with everyone.
It constitutes a complete desecration of all our rights – especially our right to access to information on matters that have destroyed millions of peoples’ lives.
It is absolutely clear from the response, and there can be no more doubt that the banks are protected by the law and the courts – this is how they get away with fraud and other criminal activity without any repercussions. After thousands and thousands of cases against ordinary hardworking people, the banks always seem to win – or they withdraw if they feel that they have been cornered. There is something fundamentally wrong with this equation.
The so-called secrecy clause, Sec. 33 of the South African Reserve Bank Act, as outlined by the Registrar of Banks, protects the banks and they do not have to answer any questions or disclose any information that may incriminate them.
It will take a special and collective effort from the people of South Africa to expose this to everyone and cause this Act to be pronounced unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
Michael of the family Tellinger
All rights reserved - Non Assumpsit
South African Reserve Bank
Legal Services Department2013-01-14 Ref. 10/5/5/6
Mr Michael Tellinger
E-mail: contact@ubuntuparty. org.za
Dear Mr Tellinger,
Disclosure of Securitisation
We refer to your e-mail letter dated 6 February 2013 addressed to Mr Rene van Wyk, Registrar of Banks.
Before I address your enquiries in particular, permit me to comment on securitization in general.
The concept of securitization, a process which involves the pooling and repackaging of cash-flow producing financial assets into securities for sale to investors, constitutes an internationally recognized and established structured finance process. In this country, securitization schemes are authorized and regulated by the Office for Banks in terms of regulations (currently published in Government Gazette No. 30628 dated 1 January 2008 - "Security Regulations") issued in terms of the Banks Act, 1990 (Act No. 94 of 1990). All securitization schemes, irrespective of whether they originate from a bank or non-bank, are required to comply with the Security Regulations, which, inter alia, regulate: the corporate status, ownership and control of the issuer of notes; requirements in respect of the transfer or true sale of assets from the originator to the issuer; the provision of credit enhancement and liquidity facilities and disclosure.
The questions listed in your aforementioned letter relate to the operation of banks and the fulfillment of reporting requirements to the Registrar of Banks in terms of the Banks Act. The South African Reserve Bank is subject to the South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989 (Act 90 of 1989) ("the Act").
Section 33 of the Act provides as follows:
"33. Preservation of secrecy- (1) No director, officer or employee of the Bank, and no officer in the Department of Finance, shall disclose to any person, except to the Minister or the Director-General: Finance or for the purpose of the performance of his or her duties or the exercise of his or her functions or when required to do so before a court of law or under any law -
(a) any information relating to the affairs of-
(i) the Bank;
(ii) a shareholder of the Bank; or
(iii) a client of the Bank,
acquired in the performance of his or her duties or the exercise of his or her functions; or
(b) any other information acquired by him or her in the course of his or her participation in the activities of the Bank,
except, in the case of information referred to in paragraph (a)(iii), with the written consent of the Minister and the Governor, after consultation with the client concerned.
(1A) The provisions of subsection (1) shall not be construed as preventing any director, 'officer or employee of the Bank who is responsible for exercising any power or performing any function or duty under the Exchange Control Regulations, 1961, issued in terms of section 9 of the Currency and Exchanges Act, 1933 (Act No. 9 of 1933), from disclosing to the Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service any information as may be required for purposes of exercising any power or performing any function or duty in terms of any Act administered by the Commissioner.
(2) No person shall disclose to any other person any information contained in any written communication which is in any manner marked as confidential or secret and which has been addressed by the Bank to any person or which has been addressed by any person to the Bank, except -
(a) for the purposes of the performance of his duties or the exercise of his powers in terms of any law or when required to do so before a court of law; or
(b) with the written consent of both the sender and the recipient of that communication."
In light of the provisions of the aforesaid section 33 we are unable to provide you with the requested information.
We trust that you will appreciate our position herein. You are of course entitled to follow the formal processes available to you in accordance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act should you wish to do so.
Yours sincerely
Dr JJ De Jager
General Counsel
Legal Services Department
