As digital transformation accelerates across South Africa’s financial sector, the regulator has moved to fortify the industry against an increasingly sophisticated wave of cyber threats. At the heart of this regulatory push is Joint Standard 2 of 2024 on Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience. It is a landmark regulatory framework issued jointly by the FSCA and the Prudential Authority. This standard introduced mandatory cybersecurity and resilience requirements for certain financial institutions. In addition, the FAIS Act requires ALL financial services providers (FSPs) to maintain a comprehensive risk management framework, which now extends to how these licensed entities manage cyber risk.
Why this standard matters now
South Africa’s financial services sector is among the most targeted industries for cybercrime on the continent, with increasing ransomware, phishing, and fraud incidents representing major business and systemic risks. National data shows that cybercrime costs the South African economy an estimated R2.2 billion annually, with the average cost of a data breach hovering around R44 million per incident. Statistics show that 60% of SMEs close within six months of…
