The National Treasury, headed by the Minister of Finance, is responsible for setting policy regarding the regulation of private and public sector investment in South Africa. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is tasked with financial stability. The SARB also oversees the National Payment System and the Financial Surveillance Division of the SARB, which is responsible for the administration of exchange controls in South Africa.

The following regulatory authorities are responsible for overseeing activities by participants in the financial sector:

• The Prudential Authority, operating within the administration of the SARB, is primarily responsible for overseeing banks, insurers, cooperative financial institutions, financial conglomerates and certain market infrastructures, and ensures that these institutions operate within a financial system that is inherently safe and sound.
• The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is a statutory body that supervises market conduct in relation to the provision of financial products and financial services in South Africa, including the conduct of financial institutions licensed in terms of various financial sector laws, such as banks, insurers, retirement funds and administrators, and market infrastructures. The mandate of the FSCA is significantly broader than that of its predecessor, the Financial Services Board.
• The SARB is the primary regulatory authority for payment systems and is responsible for the safety and soundness of the national payment system. SARB, in terms of the National Payment System Act, 1988, recognizes the Payment Association of South Africa as a payment system management body that has as one of its objectives the organizing, managing and regulating of the participation of its members (primarily banks) in the payment system.
• The Financial Intelligence Centre is responsible for implementing regulations to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities.
• The National Credit Regulator is responsible for registering credit providers and supervising compliance with prescribed regulations for consumer credit.
• The Information Regulator (akin to a data protection authority) is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013.

In some industries, certain regulatory functions are delegated to associations or self-regulatory organizations. In terms of the Financial Markets Act, 2012, licensed exchanges, central securities depositories and independent clearing houses operate as self-regulatory organizations that create rules and regulate their members and participants that are subject to the provisions of the Financial Markets Act.

South Africa is in the process of implementing a "twin peaks" approach to financial sector supervision, which commenced with the enactment of the Financial Sector Regulation Act in August 2017 and the creation of the Prudential Authority and FSCA in April 2018. The Treasury seeks to implement the transition of the South African financial sector regulation to a twin peaks model in two phases. As part of Phase 1, which has now been implemented, existing industry-specific legislation has been allocated to one of the new regulators as the principal regulatory authority for an industry, but both regulators will have the power to exercise supervisory powers and to apply and enforce the industry-specific legislation on a financial institution — the Prudential Authority in respect of prudential aspects and the FSCA in respect of market-conduct issues. The new regulators are also able to issue conduct and prudential standards to supplement industry-specific legislation.

Phase 2 represents the creation of a new consolidated regulatory framework that combines the regulation of, and the standards applied to, the various financial subsectors into overarching legislation applicable to all financial institutions. Existing financial sector legislation is currently fragmented, with a distinct statute applying to each of the different types of financial institutions providing a particular type of financial product or service, namely, securities exchanges, insurance companies, pension funds, collective investment schemes, banks, mutual banks, friendly societies, financial advisors, and intermediaries. Although existing sector-specific legislation will remain in place for an interim period, the National Treasury has confirmed that some or all of these laws will be replaced and consolidated by the overarching Conduct of Financial Institutions Act as part of the next phase of implementing the twin peaks model.