You may appoint an agent in any capacity of agency which you both agree upon, but that would not divert primary liability from you as the agent’s principal, should liabilities arise.

For example, a Clearing Agent completes Customs paperwork for their principal, but in the principal’s name as the exporter or importer of note. The Customs Act has jurisdiction over the principal primarily and the agent in a secondary capacity i.e. the principal is accountable for the actions of the agent and this concept is true of the position on the F178 also.

This foreign exchange declaration made through the F178 is a legal document, binding on two parties primarily and a third party in a secondary manner;

The first party to take responsibility is the party 'signing off' the bottom right hand of the form. Their (personal) liability is to make an accurate declaration. This is to say that they take no liability for the debt or the guarantee of funds coming in, but rather only for the accuracy (truthfulness) of the F178’s details.

The second named party (the one named just above the bank account details on the standard format) takes (essentially a personal) responsibility to receive the funds in question. This is an onerous responsibility which may devolve downwards from the corporate entity to the individual officer or director of the company personally named.

In the question at hand, your Clearing Agent is seeking authority to 'sign off' the F178's for you as their principal, but they'd still name your company and/or your authorized director in the section above the account etc. So they are seeking the limited liability of making the declaration, but they are assuming no liability for the repatriation of the funds.

The third level of responsibility rests with the named exporter on the F178, given that the party receiving the funds and the named exporter may be two different entities. The exporter may be held liable if funds are not received in a case whereby the first line of liability (i.e. the party named above the account detail) does not provide SARB with enough security or recourse.

So: If an Agent compiles an F178, would it expose the agent – the answer is yes, and often in a personal capacity, but only with regards to the accuracy of the declaration. If the agent is prepared to live with that, that is their call.

Would it protect or expose the principal? In any principal/agent relationship there must be an element of risk. A principal may subcontract functionality to the agent, but liability rests (sometimes personally, mostly corporately) with the principal.

An agent undertaking to complete paperwork may make the principal’s life easier no doubt, but as the saying goes “you get nothing for nothing”.