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REFORMS: SYNTHETIC FINANCIAL HUB WILL BRING BACK TRILLIONS TO SA

- Liesl Peyper

South Africa could potentially repatriate as much as R10 trillion invested abroad by local citizens if proposed reforms to create a “synthetic financial centre” succeed.

This, says JSE CEO Leila Fourie, could transform South Africa’s capital markets and restore lost competitiveness as a regional financial hub.

“The funds managed offshore are estimated at around R10 trillion, which is almost half of the JSE’s R24 trillion market,” Fourie said in an interview with Moneyweb after the bourse’s full-year results posting on Monday.

The concept of a synthetic financial hub featured prominently in the 2026 Budget Review, where National Treasury outlined plans to expand the “HoldCo framework” to asset managers.

The objective is to enable the management of foreign assets and foreign-currency instruments from within SA, and promote the country as a competitive financial and investment hub for the African continent.

Unlike traditional financial centres, the proposed model would not involve a physical location but rather a legal and regulatory framework.

According to Fourie, the reforms aim to restore competitiveness, noting that SA’s ranking in the Global Financial Centre Index has slipped.

“We've now slipped from 92nd position globally in the Global Financial Centre Index to 94th, and Mauritius, Casablanca, and Kigali have risen to 52nd, 56th, and 65th, respectively.”

Not a physical hub

Fourie emphasises that the proposed centre would exist purely as enabling legislation rather than a physical hub.

“A synthetic financial centre is rather a policy of legal construct that is enabling legislation. And the very first enabler is going to allow our local asset managers to trade and to manage non-ZAR funds.”

Currently, South African companies that wish to manage foreign-currency funds must establish operations offshore.