In this environment the South African Reserve Bank (Bank) must implement its mandate and manage the associated risks to ensure that South Africans benefit from opportunities emanating from a changing world. Today, I am pleased to report on another successful year in the eighty-five-year history of the Bank. The achievement and maintenance of price stability remains the primary objective of the Bank.
We are still in transition: supervision is European, but the consequences of potential bank failures are still largely borne at national level. But before you can solve that at the European level, you have first to deal with legacy problems in the banking sector. Banking union really has to be completed in five years, much faster than politicians think.