Nathalie Burrows, Editor at EBnet

If Day 1 was the appetiser, Day 2 served up a tasty feast of content as the main course.

Tuesday’s session opened with a panel discussion where Zareena Camroodien (FSCA) and Muvhango Lukhaimane (Pension Funds Adjudicator) shared their regulatory updates with delegates. My key takeaways were:

• The FSCA has issued 962 letters to trustees who have not complied with the Trustee Toolkit (TTK) requirements. Those trustees who still don’t comply by the end of June 2025 will be removed and their names published.

• The TTK will be updated with two-pot content and the provisions of the Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill (CoFI), once enacted. (Watch EBnet.Stream’s interview with Sanchia Petrie, Senior Analyst from the FSCA, where she discusses this non-compliance and future developments to the TTK here.)

• The FSCA will not take kindly to retirement funds who leave compliance with Joint Standard 2 of 2024 on Cybersecurity and Resilience, to their service providers.

• The focus now shifts to the phasing in of CoFI.

• The Pension Funds Adjudicator shared that many of the complaints her office had received were around withdrawal benefits, particularly relating to savings pot withdrawals. A large number of complaints were also received relating to late payment of contributions by employers.

• Section 37C complaints were also referenced, with the Adjudicator sharing that her office had set aside more than 50% of the decisions referred to them. She encouraged trustees to pay attention to the details and make sure they thoroughly investigate each case.

Both the FSCA and the Adjudicator reiterated their continued efforts in resolving long outstanding employer contributions to funds.

Batseta, together with conference delegates, took a special moment to acknowledge Ms Lukhaimane’s contribution to the industry as her term of office as Pension Funds Adjudicator comes to an end. Her term may be ending, but her positive impact will be felt for years to come.

Another interesting conversation was around AI and LLMs, and their applicability for retirement funds. There is a strong case to be made for AI’s ability to automate many of the routine tasks in retirement funds – like processing member queries, tracking contributions and ensuring regulatory compliance. Thereby saving time and reducing errors. But, as the guest speakers from Stanlib highlighted, it can go way beyond that. Think about the advanced analytics to enable funds to predict market trends and opportunities. And even further to the cloud computing now available that enables investment managers to analyse large data sets when building portfolios. Add to that the ability to have a far broader understanding of risk, and you could almost believe that the skills of the traditional active manager are being replaced.

While the speakers did share that job losses is one of the most commonly cited fears around AI, the consensus seems to be rather that job descriptions are changing – requiring a different skill set – both in asset management and in most other disciplines.

We live in a world where, from 2010 to 2020 the total volume of data worldwide increased from a mere 2 zettabytes per year, to 64 zettabytes per year. And in 2025 it is projected to reach 181 zettabytes. In case you’re like me and hearing this term zettabyte for the first time, a zettabyte is 1 trillion gigabytes. It’s little wonder that we’re all feeling a tad overwhelmed. Perhaps, as an individual responded to me on X while I was sending live updates from the session, the trick is to now use AI to synthesise this data into meaningful chunks.

The discussion did move to ethical use of AI, the cost reductions we could perhaps experience and the dilemma of where protection lies should investors experience negative outcomes in AI generated portfolios. All great discussion points still needing definitive answers.

Breakaway sessions held on the second day focused on investing in a global context of shifting inflation dynamics, consistency in investing and the case for quality when certainty is scarce. Chaired by Principal Officers of some of the industry’s largest retirement funds, the conversation was meaningful and important.

From a personal POV, reconnecting with friends, colleagues and peers, and making some new ones, plus the opportunity to meet the Batseta Executive team who were always visible and available to chat, was invaluable.

Thank you to Anne-Marie and her team at Batseta for an excellent two days of content and connection.

ENDS