Today, I am proud to officially launch another initiative that is ground-breaking for the South African Reserve Bank and which I believe ranks it as a leader among central banks. The Bank realises that the effects of monetary policy impact on labour markets and social development issues.
When borrowers defaulted, these transactions ultimately resulted in losses also for the banks’ shareholders (and sub debt holders), and – notoriously – for the Government which stepped in to prevent other creditors of the banks losing. Naturally, much attention has rightly focused on the € billion or so of ultimate losses assumed by the Government under that heading.