One of the most important achievements in the NPS was the inclusion of the South African rand in the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) system in 2004. CLS is a worldwide industry initiative implemented to reduce the risks associated with cross-currency transactions by settling the two legs of a foreign exchange (FX) transaction simultaneously in order to eliminate FX settlement risk.
1 Leading up to the Rand joining the CLS settlement system, the SARB issued a position paper late in 2002 supporting the inclusion of the rand as a settlement currency in the CLS system and encouraged South African registered banks to support this initiative in areas where their actions were required to enable this initiative.