Address by Mr T.T. Mboweni, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Legal Resources Centre banquet, Johannesburg 1.    INTRODUCTIONGood evening ladies and gentleman. I thank you for inviting me here to speak at this celebration of your twenty-first anniversary. The twenty-one year mark is as much a milestone for a child moving through the rites of passage to adulthood as it is for an organisation such as yours that has worked for change in a society wounded by years of apartheid. I congratulate you on all you have achieved during these past years and I wish you all the best in your future endeavours. 2.    HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESERVE BANK’S LEGAL FRAMEWORKI am going to take some liberty this evening and talk about the importance of the Bank’s functions being supported by the law and the wider implications of having a strong legal and regulatory framework. The legal basis of the South African Reserve Bank has roots that stretch back to the 18th century. At that time the need for the establishment of a bank of issue with special privileges in South Africa was strongly advocated. The prevailing system where each of the provinces within the Union of South Africa had its own set of banking rules proved dissatisfactory because of the resulting lack of uniformity in the banking system. But it was only in the year 1920 that legislation providing for the establishment of a central bank in South Africa was enacted. Section 9(1) of the Currency and Banking Act, 1920 (Act No. 31 of 1920), for the first time provided for the establishment in Pretoria of a corporate body called the South African Reserve Bank. As could be expected, the charter of the South African Reserve Bank was closely modelled on widely accepted central banking precepts and was in general based on the theory and practice of central banking as it had developed up to that stage. The legislation endowed the newly established Reserve Bank with certain rights and obligations. In terms of section 12 of the Currency and Banking Act, the Reserve Bank was given the right to establish branches or appoint agents or correspondents in or outside the Union. The legislation required the Reserve Bank on occasion to fix and publish the rates at which it was willing to discount various classes of bills. And it also authorised the Bank to act as the banker and financial agent of the government and government institutions. The Bank was also authorised to manufacture and issue bank notes in the Union for a period of 25 years, which was later extended, and the Bank was given complete monopoly over the issue of bank notes. The South African Bank Note Company, a wholly owned subsidiary, today carries out this function. 3.    THE BANK’S CURRENT STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONSOver the years, the Currency and Banking Act was amended several times and eventually repealed. It was replaced by the South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989, also known as the "SARB Act". It provides the legal basis for the existence of the Bank as it stands today. The Reserve Bank of South Africa differs from other central banks because it is a publicly held company, listed on the JSE Securities Exchange. Its shares today are tightly held by about 667 individual shareholders, which include companies, institutions and private individuals. Shareholders are limited to a maximum stock ownership of 10 000 shares of R1 each and receive a fixed annual dividend of 10 cents per share.The Bank functions as a legal persona and is governed by a board of fourteen directors. The executive management comprises a Governor and three Deputy Governors, all appointed by the President of the Republic after consultation with the Minister of Finance and the Board. Of the 10 non-executive directors, the President appoints three, and seven are appointed by the shareholders.The Reserve Bank’s executive management are tasked with steering the Bank to achieve its mandated objectives. In accordance with modern international economic trends, it is recognised that the potential for economic growth and the creation of jobs can be fulfilled only