To give just a few examples: online gateways have allowed the Bank to offer a virtual shopfront for receiving payments to the government without the cost of a physical branch network; increased network connectivity has meant that we can lodge the government's overseas pension payments directly into automated clearing houses in other countries rather than issue foreign currency cheques or money orders; and greater processing capacity and system resilience means that we can now process certain government payments with a tolerance of no more than 20 minutes of system downtime per year.
BIS Review 53/2002  5  Domestically the South African banking sector was characterised by a process of consolidation triggered by the difficulties of some small banks. This trend intensified after the announcement that Saambou Bank Limited, the seventh-largest bank in South Africa, would be placed under curatorship from 9 February 2002.