South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority will wait for guidance from the Basel-based Financial Stability Board before drafting fresh AI rules, commissioner Unathi Kamlana said in a Friday interview, adding “It’s good for us to be waiting for that because we want to be aligned.” The Financial Stability Board is developing principles to help firms handle AI responsibly, with its final report expected next month and categorized as a deliverable for the Group of 20 under the forum’s 2026 US presidency. Findings will inform a joint discussion paper from the South African Reserve Bank, the Prudential Authority and the FSCA that will explicitly address agentic AI and set the stage for a future regulatory framework. The FSCA and the Prudential Authority have already published an initial paper scanning AI adoption and leading use cases in the financial sector, with a follow up planned on how governance principles will be built into financial institutions’ use of AI. Kamlana said regulators will stick with a principles based approach rather than hard rules, given how quickly AI is evolving, adding “We are going to stay the course on AI and the risk it presents to the financial sector, but we have been clear and consistent on the approach, which is principles rather than rules, because it is a fast evolving area.”