##manco approves investment guidelines and allocates the active risk budget to portfolios in order to limit deviations from the benchmarks. in addition, the committee also has the delegated authority to appoint and / or remove external fund managers, custodians and securities lending agents. while resmanco ’ s role is one of oversight, portfolio management activities, however, are conducted within the financial markets department and, in line with principles of sound internal governance, the bank has separated the activities of portfolio management, financial risk management, and operational risk management. while these activities all reside within the financial markets department, the head of financial risk has a dotted reporting line to the deputy governor : markets and international and the head of the risk management and compliance department. these measures ensure adequate segregation of duties to prevent any conflicts of interest while at the same time allow for operational efficiency. furthermore, in an effort to promote and improve transparency around reserves management, in 2016 the south african reserve bank began publishing the official gold and foreign exchange reserves management investment policy on the bank ’ s website. these governance structures are vital to ensure that the investment policy, through the saa in this instance, is implemented effectively and lends credibility to the saa process itself. conclusion to conclude, i would like to paraphrase a quote attributed to saint francis of assisi : “ start by doing what ’ s necessary. then do what ’ s possible. and suddenly you are doing the impossible. ” page 12 of 13 looking back at where we started in 1999 to where we are now, we have progressed considerably in terms of our approach to investing our reserves. we have achieved what might have seemed impossible back then. our current saa simulation initiative is a combination of the latest thinking in investments, lessons learnt, and all the challenges we have faced along the way. of course, as with any process, there are areas for improvement, and i am sure that, through future iterations, our saas will be even more robust and more effective. i hope that this journey through the history of the sarb ’ s foreign exchange reserves management, and the saa ’ s vital role therein, has been informative, and that it has given you an idea of the challenges and opportunities we have faced along the way. i look forward to engaging with you all in the session that follows, and hope that you enjoy the remaining sessions today. thank you. page 13 of 13

engineers ” may prefer to create ever more “ sophisticated ” financial products. but finance has to come back to the basics. among the basic tasks of the financial industry is the supply of credit to the real economy. this too is a profitable business, the profits from which are justified because they are mirrored by the social value of the intermediation function. businesses and individuals depend in particular on the steady supply of credit by banks. the ecb and the national central banks of the euro area have taken comprehensive measures during the crisis to help commercial banks and other financial institutions. when the turbulence started in august 2007, the ecb was the first central bank to step in by frontloading liquidity. after the intensification of the crisis in the autumn of 2008, we tackled the paralysis of interbank transactions in the money market. in addition to a swift and substantial reduction of our policy rate, in line with our primary objective of maintaining price stability over the medium term, we decided to implement a set of non - standard measures, which we collectively refer to as “ enhanced credit support ”. i explained these measures in detail here in munich in a speech last july. these measures have significantly helped to maintain banks ’ liquidity. but we did not pursue this policy with the ultimate goal of reconstructing banks ’ profitability. rather, the purpose of our enhanced credit support has been to ensure the transmission of monetary policy transactions to the broader economy. global economic governance the crisis has important implications for economic governance, and here remarkable efforts have been made or are under way. on the global level, the g20 has become the main forum for international cooperation, and a strong consensus has emerged within this group not only about the causes of the crisis but also about the appropriate policy responses. the g20 has been highly effective in addressing the global crisis. the more technical questions concerning regulation and financial stability are mainly delegated to the financial stability board ( fsb ). the extension of both the membership and the range of tasks of the previous financial stability forum have pushed the financial stability board into a leading role when it comes to coordinating the reform of financial regulation. the european regulatory response to the crisis will include a new body that will provide macroprudential oversight and focus on the avoidance of systemic risk in the financial system of the european union as a whole. this is the european systemic risk board ( esrb ), the establishment of which intends to make macro - prudential oversight operational at the european level. while