Looking around the world today, we still have, even in the present adverse climate, many reasons for remaining optimistic about the medium and longer-term prospects for the South African economy. Our banking system remains sound, our financial markets operate with great efficiency, and a huge pent-up demand for goods and services needs but little encouragement to re-stimulate the economy. BIS Review 68/1998
The ECB will assume this role in November next year and will implement the new harmonised model together with the national competent authorities, whether central banks or non-central bank supervisors. We call this the single supervisory mechanism (SSM).