Nathalie Burrows, Editor at EBnet

If Day 1 was the appetiser, then Day 2 definitely delivered the tasty main course of great content at this year’s IRFA Conference.

Highlights for me were:

Panel discussion: Sustainable retirement security

In this illuminating conversation, Zareena Camroodien (African Pension Supervisors Association) and Tendai Matika (UN PRI) sat down with representatives from the IRFA Board to discuss the issues facing the South African retirement industry, not least of all being inclusion.

Among the obstacles discussed were:

• Data fragmentation
• Lack of expertise
• Resource constraints
• Infrastructure gaps

In a country that invests less than 3% of retirement fund assets in infrastructure (compared to 10% on OECD countries, and 20% in Canada), we really are positioning ourselves on the back foot and as Tendai succinctly put it: “Ignoring ESG is not an option”.

On the issue of savings in the informal sector, and fostering financial inclusion, Zareena pointed to the Ejo Heza micro-pensions initiative in Rwanda as a successful case study that made an enormous impact on the savings of citizens.

FSCA update

Zareena Camroodien, this time in her capacity as the Department Head: Fund Governance and Trustee Conduct at the FSCA, shared updates from the Conduct Authority, including:

• Stats on the number of active funds (1 329 in Jan 2024, to 858 in August 2025),
• The fund cancellation process remains a priority. The process has been revised and the revised process successfully tested. Zareena invited the industry to email complex cases to Termination.SpecialProject@fsca.co.za
• Unclaimed benefits remain on their radar, with a first step identified as cleaning and enhancing the FSCA’s unclaimed benefits database.
• There is an intention to focus on fund expenses (format to still be determined)
• The implementation on CoFI – imminent

AI in pension fund governance

In this session, speakers shared some of the possible use case of AI in pension fund governance. From taking over repetitive tasks, like comparing your fund’s financial statements or asset allocations, to applying “critical” thinking to uncover some of your decision making blind spots, there’s no getting away from it: we need to get our heads around using AI in our governance structures.

This does however, come with some pretty stern warning labels.

So now what?

Although not a specific topic on the agenda, many of the sessions challenged attendees to move from talking to doing, especially when it comes to:

• Member communication and engagement – catch them at the “a-ha” moment.
• Policy and legislation – Australia has phenomenal pensions coverage despite persistent levels of financial illiteracy.
• ESG investing – and the measurement thereof. You’ll either be managing assets or managing expectations.
• Fund governance – an active taking of control of decision making and robust interrogation of what is possible.

For me, one of the key messages, and imperatives, coming out of this year’s IRFA Conference is the need for industry collaboration – a collective that delivers more then the sum of its parts. Having just been treated to 2 days of content from the industry’s leading minds, and looking at successful case studies in Australia, Rwanda and elsewhere, I’ve realised that we do have the solutions between us.

It comes down to will. Are we willing to do what it takes?

ENDS