Meeting Angelique Visser, Chairperson of the Fiduciary Institute of SA (FISA) - Money-Marketing

Meeting Richard Rattue, Managing Director, Compli-Serve

  • Q: How did you get involved in financial services and what brought you to SA?
  • A: I was originally recruited into a management development programme for Lloyds Bank in the UK way back in the 1980s. I arrived in Cape Town in 1997 hot on the heels of my then girlfriend - who is now my wife - and I must confess, this is the main reason I originally came to this beautiful country.

  • Q: What is good about compliance in SA and what can we improve upon?
  • A: I take heart from the number of committed and passionate compliance officers that I engage with on a regular basis, and the continuing development of a professional structure to support the compliance profession. The industry is still relatively young and while excellent progress has been made, I do think that improvements can be made in some businesses where compliance is seen very much as a backseat event, rather than being an integral part of business.

  • Q: How do you identify a good compliance business and product, apart from just checking registrations and licences?
  • A: In addition to doing the hard “checks” around licences and product authority scope, it is equally important to look at the softer side of the equation, specifically focusing on both individuals that run the business, and on employees. One can, after a few years of experience, quickly gauge where a business stands in respect of compliance and general ethics, as the two tend to go hand-in-hand.

  • Q: Do you always read the fine print on everything you buy and why are so many people still caught out by this?
  • A: I must confess, I have to force myself to read my insurance policy; however I do take the time out to do this, as I believe it is important to make sure that we understand what we are getting, and more importantly what we are not getting as part of the deal. I recently had cause to join the AA after my old Land Rover broke down on the highway once again, and was quite shocked to see how the service offered has been skimmed since I was last a member some 10 years ago. One simply does not understand this without reading the fine print. Unfortunately much contractual documentation remains over-complicated and drafted by lawyers for lawyers, rather than for consumers, and until we have a genuine implementation of “plain language” documentation, it is always going to be difficult for an average person to understand the fine print.

  • Q: What was the first financial product that you bought and do you still have it?
  • A: I took out the first tax incentivised savings scheme offered by the UK government at the time, and confess that I still have it, although the returns have hardly been exciting.

  • Q: What is your wish for SA in 2013?
  • A: I have many wishes, but I think the most important one would be that government and business and other stakeholders work together to create employment, particularly for the country’s youth. Many of the ills we currently see in society can be traced back to the people who are unable to work and who are bored and disillusioned by their own lives. Compli-Serve SA is one of the leading SA providers of professional compliance support and services to financial professionals, and will celebrate its 10th anniversary in May of this year.

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