​The South African Reserve Bank is pleased to announce the signing of a multilateral Inter-Central Bank Agreement (ICBA) with BRICS Central Banks, on 7 July in Moscow, Russia. The ICBA is for purposes of implementing the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) as announced in July 2014, at the BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil.The ICBA provides a framework for the provision of liquidity to other BRICS countries through currency swap arrangements. The agreement governs the swap transactions and instruments as specified under the CRA Treaty. Following the ratification of the CRA Treaty by all BRICS countries, and the finalisation of the ICBA, the CRA with an initial size of US$ 100 billion, will become effective. The purpose of the CRA is to help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures; promote further BRICS cooperation; strengthen the global financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements. The CRA provides valuable insurance to the BRICS countries, thereby increasing their resilience to shocks, and in so doing, helps boost confidence in their economies, through increasing the access to financial resources in the event of actual or potential balance of payments pressures.This is the first multilateral financial safety net arrangement which South Africa has entered into, following the bilateral swap arrangement that was signed with China in April 2015.Group Strategy and CommunicationsSouth African Reserve BankContact:Candice JeffreysMedia Co-ordinator+27 12 313 4209