South Africa has one of the most respected, reliable banking sectors in a global financial landscape that is currently volatile and under great pressure. Our financial institutions, led by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and our cutting-edge retail banking sector, offer strong security and peace of mind for your savings deposits.

Now SARB has introduced a compulsory deposit insurance scheme for all South African banks. This will ensure that you can recover some of your savings if you have them deposited at a retail bank that fails. The scheme will be run by a subsidiary of SARB called the Corporation for Deposit Insurance (CODI).

What is CODI and how does it work?

CODI will manage the country’s Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF), which will guarantee a specific limit of your deposits in a bank account – up to R100,000 per depositor per bank – if your bank were to fail, be liquidated, or be placed into resolution. SARB has created CODI to boost public confidence in the country’s banking system.

The establishment of CODI under the Financial Sector Laws Amendment Act, 23 of 2021, is designed to support the SARB mandate to protect and enhance the country’s financial stability. The DIF enables the efficient provision of insurance protection to you as a bank client.

Answering your questions

CODI’s DIF will apply to all registered banks. Here are some details on how the scheme will work:

CODI protection will be automatic – depositors will not have to apply for this protection.

The scheme will protect banking products where the capital amount is guaranteed, which usually refers to your savings and cheque accounts and fixed-term deposits. It will not protect any of your investments where your capital is not guaranteed – for example, in equity unit trusts.

The scheme allows you to be informed exactly how much you would receive if your bank were to be liquidated or go out of business, and when you would receive it.

The DIF will ensure access to your savings and deposits within a reasonable time frame.

CODI will use the DIF to pay you out as an insured client through an electronic funds transfer, up to a limit of R100,000 per depositor per bank. This fully covers about 95% of depositors, while about 23% of the total deposit values are covered.

CODI will not cover any balances you might have in a retirement annuity or education annuity at a bank.

CODI will not cover financial institutions’ deposits at a bank. Financial institutions in this case include all financial intermediaries regardless of their form of business, including financial sole proprietors, financial companies, banks, money market unit trusts, non-market-money unit trusts, insurers, pension funds, fund managers, private financial corporate sector institutions, monetary authorities, and public non-financial corporations.

CODI has put together a full rundown of the specific features and exclusions of the CODI DIF, and how it might affect you. You can also find out more about CODI’s role and business model.