Since the appointment of a curator to Saambou Bank on Saturday 9 February 2002, there have been many enquiries and much speculation about the South African Reserve Bank’s stance regarding its role as lender of last resort.South Africa has an internationally recognised sound, sophisticated financial system that operates according to international best practice. Among the Bank’s responsibilities are regulation and supervision of the banking sector, and provision of liquidity assistance to well managed and sustainable banking institutions in times of need.The policy and practice of the South African Reserve Bank as the monetary authority of South Africa is to stand behind our banks and to provide liquidity assistance to sound banking institutions which may experience temporary liquidity difficulties. The Bank’s lender of last resort policy has recently been reviewed and independently tested against the current international best practice.I confirm that this policy of the South African Reserve Bank remains firmly in place. We stand behind our financial system and every endeavour is made to protect the deposits of both individuals and corporates.It is also the policy of the Bank to facilitate orderly management of those banking institutions which are in breach of their social contract, and this may, as a last resort and in the interest of depositors, result in the imposition of curatorship. Mr TT MboweniGovernor ​