The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is to dematerialise South African Reserve Bank Debentures (SARB Debentures) with effect from Wednesday, 17 October 2001. This will eliminate the physical handling of scrip and speed up the settlement process. This means that in future SARB Debentures will not be issued in physical format. Instead, buyers of SARB Debentures will receive a statement from their custodial bank and/or a broker note from their broker detailing their holdings.The SARB will maintain two accounts in the Financial Instruments Register (FIR) for all custodial banks, branches or subsidiaries of foreign banks and mutual banks. One account will contain particulars of the banks' own SARB Debenture holdings and the other account will reflect the combined SARB Debenture holdings of their clients. Non-FIR account holders (i.e. brokers and corporates) and private individuals will still be permitted to tender, but they will be required to nominate a FIR account holder as their custodian. The nominated custodian as well as the relevant broker or corporate dealing on behalf of a client will be required to keep a record of their clients' SARB Debenture holdings.If two clients of different banks trade SARB Debentures, both parties will be required to report the deal to their nominated banker. The SARB will only transfer the scrip between the relevant FIR accounts on receipt of a transfer instruction from both these banks. The transfer instructions for the transfer of the scrip in the FIR are carried out on a Delivery Free of Payment (DFP) basis and / or a Receive Free of Payment (RFP) basis. Even though the two counterparties to the deal must agree on the method of payment, every effort should be made to utilise the South African Multiple Options Settlement (SAMOS) system when making payments with respect to these transactions.The dematerialisation process does not apply to SARB Debentures issued before the dematerialisation date, i.e. 17 October 2001.Full details of the procedures to be followed by tenderers for, and buyers and sellers of SARB debentures can be obtained from the Reserve Bank's website under the heading: Money and Capital Markets. Alternatively, any queries about this announcement can be referred to Mr Koos Kühn at: (012)313-3207 or Mr Japie Hornsveld at: (012)313-3546. ​