Mail & Guardian reports that the battle over the cancellation of thousands of “orphan” pension funds — believed to total more than R20-billion — by the Financial Services Board (FSB) will now be taken up by the Constitutional Court.  

Former deputy registrar of pension funds Rosemary Hunter claims that a mass deregistration of orphan funds — shell funds left without any members or assets or dormant funds without boards — from 2007 to 2013 was unlawful and potentially prejudicial to pensioners and other beneficiaries.  In July 2014, Hunter filed a whistle-blowing report to the board of the FSB alleging the mishandling of the deregistration process, which saw the cancellation of 4,600 funds, without — Hunter said — proper oversight by the FSB.  This matter has a long history of investigations, reports and court cases, which is detailed in this report.  The rules for cancelling funds, as set out by the Pensions Fund Act, will be key to the dispute at the Constitutional Court this week.  Hunter’s counsel will argue that the FS’s reading of the Act disregards the duty of the registrar to check the compliance of trustees with the Pensions Fund Act.  The registrar cannot cancel merely on the say-so of “unlawfully” appointed representatives, says Hunter.

• Read this report by Sarah Smith in full at M&G

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