Circular 7 of 2026: Categorisation of assets in terms of Annexure B to the Regulations of the Medical Schemes Act

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) publishes Guidelines on categorising assets in terms of Regulation 30 of the Medical Schemes Act (131 of 1998) (MSA), read in conjunction with Annexure B to the Regulations on an annual basis. The purpose of these Guidelines is to communicate in advance the drop-down lists that would be included in the Financial Annual Statutory Return (FASR). The classification of assets is based on information available to the CMS.

Supporting documentation attesting to the new classification must be submitted in the event that a scheme categorises any investment in Part 9 differently from the categorisation provided for in these Guidelines. This will pre-empt any queries the CMS might have regarding the reclassification.

The publication of the Guidelines intends to ensure efficiencies in Part 9 (Assets held in the Republic in terms of Regulation 30 in conjunction with Annexure B to the Regulations) of the FASR submission and analysis. Since the adoption of this approach, the analysis of medical schemes’ submissions could occur on a report-level basis, with only exceptions needing to be followed up by analysts. As the schemes already submitted information relating to the reclassification as part of the submission requirements, this further reduced the engagement process. In terms of these efficiencies introduced, the analysis of a scheme with a diverse investment portfolio has reduced significantly from three days to only a few hours.

Kindly refer to the Explanatory Memorandum issued as an appendix to Circular 13 of 2015 for the considerations taken into account in the classification of assets in terms of Annexure B. The purpose of the Explanatory Memorandum is to clearly communicate the considerations taken in creating the individual categories’ drop-downs in the FASR. This Explanatory Memorandum has also been incorporated in the Help File for the FASR.

It should further be noted that the purpose of these Guidelines is to guide the categorisation of assets according to Annexure B to the Regulations, and not to highlight any non-compliance matters. For example, a specific asset could be included in the category 4(b) drop-down, but any such investment is prohibited in terms of the MSA.

Download the Circular here.