Banking Law

Overview

The Master in Banking Law at University of Johannesburg is designed to be completed by full-time students within one year and by part-time students over two years.

Programme structure

This programme consists of a minor dissertation (60 credits) together with three compulsory taught modules (3x40 credits), namely: 

• Banking Law: This module has a distinct private-law focus. The central concepts of money and payment are investigated by way of introduction. This is followed by a study of the bank-customer agreement. The module further deals with banks as payment intermediaries (in various methods of especially domestic payment). Finally, the module focuses on bank liability arising from contract, delict and enrichment. Prof Charl Hugo (the director of the Faculty’s Centre for Banking Law) and Prof Sarel du Toit will be jointly responsible for leading most of the seminars, but some guest lecturers with particular expertise in certain fields are also likely to lead some seminars.
• Financial Services Regulation: The importance of sound regulation of financial services has been well demonstrated by global financial crises during the past two decades or so. Certain key international bodies drive international cooperation in this regard. As part of this process, South Africa has decided to switch to a twin-peaks system in terms of which all financial services are regulated under the auspices of a prudential and market conduct regulator, overseen by a financial stability oversight committee jointly represented by these two regulators. In this module some fundamental theoretical concepts in the regulation of financial services are explored, including systemic risk and contagion. Both the prudential and market-conduct regulation are considered with a focus on the legislative components that form part of this regulatory system. The module leader is Prof Sarel du Toit, who will be assisted by guest lecturers. 
• Credit Law: This module focuses on the National Credit Act, arguably one of the most important pieces of legislation in South Africa, which has featured in many reported cases and has generated much academic commentary.