Currently, the Reserve Bank has a number of roles in the payment system, and I have mentioned some of them already: •  Issuer of currency - coin and paper (or these days polymer) "money"  •  Provider of exchange settlement accounts - electronic "money"  •  Provider and operator of ESAS - the facility to use our accounts for real-time transactions  •  Provider and operator of Austraclear - securities trading and settlement  •  Provider of liquidity to the banking system  •  User of the system for FX and securities trading and settlement  •  Regulator of banks and overseer of the payment system  We are very conscious that we are wearing all these different hats, and that they could involve somewhat different interests.
We therefore manage each of these roles separately, although with close co-ordination, and in practice we find that they rarely come into any conflict. Almost all of the roles are core businesses for central banks. The only exception to this is the Austraclear operation, which is more commercial in nature, and may not be an essential component of the Reserve Bank.