|
A perfect ombud fit
|
|
|
Thebe Mabanga
Financial Mail
Friday, April 16, 2010
|
|
|
|
Noluntu Bam’s work experience seems to have prepared her perfectly for her new appointment as Financial Advisory & Intermediary Services (FAIS) ombud.
Bam officially took up the position at the beginning of March, succeeding Charles Pillai, the founding FAIS ombud, who has just been appointed the pension funds adjudicator.
Bam was Pillai’s deputy ombud for the past three years, having joined the office at its inception six years ago as an assistant ombud. More critically, she brings with her solid academic grounding and legal experience that spans academia, mainstream practice and working as legal adviser for two large financial services outfits.
Bam says she is attracted to her regulatory and watchdog role as it helps the people on the street in their daily “David vs Goliath” battle against financial giants and fights harmful practice against consumers. She says there is “triumphant feeling” at the end of a case when a transgressing provider has to pay up and “admit to having learnt something”.
For example, she points to a groundbreaking ruling by the FAIS ombud in July 2005 that allowed consumers to purchase home loan insurance from a company of their choice and not necessarily the home loan provider.
The office has seen total settlements increase from R6,5m in 2005/2006 to R32m last year. Bam says one of her challenges is to spread consumer education and raise the profile of her office. From her base in Lynwood, Pretoria, she works with a staff of 30 and an annual budget of R24m to serve aggrieved consumers all around the country.
Bam cannot remember what drew her to the legal field. When she was growing up in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape as the second of six children, she recalls, her father wanted her to be a doctor and her mother had an aversion to lawyers, born partly out of a lack of information. She completed her BProc in 1994 at the then University of Transkei and an LLB two years later at what is now the University of KwaZulu Natal.
She was admitted as an attorney in 1997, while working in Pillai’s law firm and lecturing part-time. Bam also holds an LLM in tax law and is a certified financial planner .
Before joining the ombud , Bam worked as a legal adviser at insurance giants Old Mutual and Liberty Life.
She is currently in her second year of an MBA at Wits. In the “little spare time” she has between work and studies, Bam says, she relaxes by reading, listening to music and exercising.
|
|
|
 Print this article |
 Send to a friend
|
|