What an ODP application requires
Authorisation is governed by Conduct Standard 1 of 2018 — Criteria for the Authorisation of OTC Derivative Providers. Reporting obligations sit in FMA Conduct Standard 3 of 2018.
What follows is the document schedule an applicant is asked to produce. Read it before you decide how long this will take you.
A note on which schedule this is. The FSCA's published application index is written for bank applicants. Most firms seeking ODP authorisation are not banks — CFD brokers, offshore groups with a South African entity, proprietary trading firms — and the schedule for a non-bank applicant is comparable but not identical.
What follows is the bank index, set out in full, because it is the clearest public statement of the standard the Authority applies. Where your obligations as a non-bank applicant differ is one of the first things the specialists establish. Tell us what your business does and we'll connect you with someone who can set out the schedule that actually applies to you.
Capital and financial planning
Three-year plan: available capital, expected expenses and income, expected profits or losses, expected cash equivalents and liquid securities, for each year
Annual quantification of potential business losses for an orderly wind-up
Definition and quantification of operational, legal, investment, general business and custody risk
Stress-test and scenario-analysis framework or methodology
Supporting annual financial statements
Working capital projections — three years in detail, five years less detailed
Cash-flow projections
Break-even analysis covering profit and cash flow
Source of funding
Proof of an irrevocable line of credit
Capital raising plan and necessary approvals
All assumptions used in budgets, financial statements and calculations
On the minimum. Conduct Standard 1 of 2018 sets a baseline minimum capital requirement, and the FSCA confirmed in Communication 4 of 2026 that a more granular framework for non-bank ODPs is being developed. What the requirement means for your business depends on your projected book — the specialists work through that calculation with you.
The number is the smaller part of this. What takes the time is the modelling behind it — the three-year plan, the wind-up quantification, the stress testing, and the assumptions the FSCA will test.
Fit and proper, and governance
Documents under Annexures A, B and C of the Conduct Standard
Confirmation and acceptance of auditor and attorney appointments
Procedures for election, appointment and termination of controlling body members
Powers and responsibilities of controlling body members and senior managers
Ownership-interest meeting and voting procedures; dissolution procedures
Police clearances for controlling body members and senior managers
Official representations and confirmation of good standing
Details of offences reported to regulatory bodies
Form FM 6, and Forms B and C
Form 1 — every controlling body member and senior manager
Form 2 — the provider
Form 1 is completed by each controlling body member and senior manager. It covers:
Personal, appointment and contact details; nationality and identity documents
Qualifications and institutions
Current or proposed capacity, job title, duties and responsibilities
Investment and significant shareholding history over at least five years, including specified family holdings
Fitness and probity questions covering civil and criminal findings, professional and industry findings, regulatory findings, refused, suspended or withdrawn authorisations, management disqualifications, and insolvency or debt review
Supporting documents: signed declaration, certified identity documents, credential verification forms, full CV, certified academic certificates
Form 2 is completed by the provider. It covers:
Entity and operational details; bank, auditor and attorney details
Financial soundness questions on judgment debt, liquidation, business rescue and creditor arrangements
Signed Form FM 6
Adequacy of communications and administrative facilities, and of storage and filing systems
Assets exceeding liabilities, subject to the stated treatment of goodwill, intangibles and subordinated loans
Current assets sufficient to meet current liabilities
Tax clearance certificate and CIPC certificate
Copies of existing licences
Business plan including SWOT analysis
Group organogram
The five-year shareholding history is where applications quietly stall. It is the item most often incomplete when a key individual has held directorships across several entities, and it cannot be reconstructed quickly.
People and competency
Schematic ODP structure, and management structure showing responsibility for major areas
Number of personnel in each functional area, and projected staff requirements
Clear identification of full-time employees allocated to ODP operations
Full CVs of controlling body members and senior managers
Certified copies of qualifications
Risk management and internal control
Approved risk management policies, frameworks and governance structures
Enterprise risk and portfolio risk policies and processes
ODP risk management processes and escalation procedures
Full description of risk management IT systems
Approved IT framework and IT risk framework, policies and governance
Audit and risk committee composition and terms of reference
Netting policy and liquidity policy
Risk reports and their frequency
Internal audit oversight schedule and sample reports
Error reporting and proof of daily error resolution
Fraud prevention policies and review frequency
ISAE 3402 report where applicable
Full operational narrative, and a qualitative and quantitative risk-process narrative
Applicable public-disclosure details
Three-lines-of-defence or equivalent segregation-of-duties explanation
Continuous risk training programme
Material outsourcing and third-party service list
The framework cannot be a generic enterprise risk document. It has to connect your actual products, counterparties, exposures, liquidity, collateral, technology and escalation processes to the risks your specific OTC derivatives business creates.
Compliance
Number of dedicated compliance staff
ODP compliance policy
Compliance monitoring process
Compliance function reporting lines
Four items, and the shortest section on this page — which is misleading. What is being assessed is not whether the policy exists but whether the function has the standing and independence to do anything. Reporting lines that route compliance through the business it monitors are visible immediately.
Business continuity and records
Business continuity plan, including disaster recovery and operational resilience
Approved internal audit plan
Data retention, storage and governance policies
Continuity has to cover the derivatives business specifically: what happens to open positions, valuations, margin calls and daily reporting when systems fail. A general IT continuity plan does not answer that.
Operational detail
Valuation policy, methodology and approval process
Pricing-difference resolution processes
Expertise of personnel performing valuations
Services to be provided
Licensed independent or associated clearing house arrangements
Settlement, custody and administration arrangements
Additional or unregulated business
Foreign-jurisdiction OTC derivative services
Trading method or facility
Expected local and foreign counterparties and clients
Portfolio-compression arrangements
Trade reporting
List of asset classes to be reported
Proof of ability to generate the required report under FMA Conduct Standard 3 of 2018
Reasons for inability to generate a report, where applicable
Confirmation of daily reporting
Details of the licensed Trade Repository to be used
Reporting is daily, and the application asks for proof of capability — not an intention to build one. A repository connection and a working data pipeline take longer to arrange than most applicants allow for.
Tell us what your business does and we'll connect you with the people who can confirm whether ODP authorisation applies to you — and what it would take.
Regulatory sources: Financial Markets Act 19 of 2012 · Financial Markets Act Regulations, 2018 (GN R98) · Conduct Standard 1 of 2018 · FMA Conduct Standard 3 of 2018 · FSCA Communication 4 of 2026
Last reviewed: August 2026
ODP Gateway
FSCA ODP authorisation, run as a single project. We connect you with the specialist practice that prepares the application.