this change will be negotiated with the banks taking due consideration of the impact this would have on their customers and operations. 2. 3 impact on the financial system the new settlement arrangements and the samos system have placed the south african settlement practices on par with international best practice and presented many new challenges and opportunities to the banking and non - banking sector. major changes include : • increased participation in line with the philosophy of the new nps, the interbank settlement system has been opened to enable more participation. all registered south african banks are eligible to participate in samos. the number of participating banks in the settlement process has already increased from 11 banks in the old system to 21 banks in the new system. the number of participants will most probably increase significantly over the next few months. • exposures monitored in real time a participating bank can monitor its balances in the samos system in real time. in other words, the effect of any payments made or received by a participant will immediately be reflected on the banks ’ position monitor. the bank will thus be fully informed at all times of the position in its settlement account, intraday - loan account and the utilisation of collateral provided. the reserve bank will be able to monitor the positions of all participating banks and the system as a whole. • early warning signals of potential systemic crisis various system indicators will enable the reserve bank to ascertain whether any particular bank is experiencing difficulty in meeting its payments commitments. this will enable the reserve bank to take pro - active steps to address a potential systemic crisis before it destabilises the payment system. • synchronisation of payment and delivery the fact that the samos system will eventually provide intraday finality of settlement between banks will enable the financial markets to intro - duce the practice of delivery against payment. the finality of payment achieved through samos can be synchronised with the delivery of immobilised scrip, thereby providing safe and secure financial market transactions. • customer - to - customer funds transfers in real time finally, the implementation of the samos system and the interbank settlement network provides a key building block in the enhancement of the payment services and products available to business and the general public. the new technological architecture introduced provides a vital link which could enable the interlinking of payment networks and services on a national basis in future, thereby creating endless permutations of payment services and products. the opportunity for banks and non - banks to co - operate and collaborate

tiff macklem : opening statement before the house of commons standing committee on finance opening statement ( delivered virtually ) by mr tiff macklem, governor of the bank of canada, before the house of commons standing committee on finance, ottawa, ontario, 3 march 2022. * * * introduction good afternoon. thank you for inviting me here as part of your study on inflation in canada. i ’ m pleased to have senior deputy governor carolyn rogers with me for her first appearance before this committee. since i was last here, the bank of canada and the government of canada renewed our joint agreement on canada ’ s monetary policy framework. we agreed that the primary objective of monetary policy is price stability. under the 2022 – 26 agreement, the cornerstone of our framework remains the 2 % inflation target, at the midpoint of a 1 % to 3 % control range. and earlier today i spoke to the cfa society toronto, where i explained our policy decision yesterday to raise our policy interest rate by 25 basis points to half a percent. i also reviewed the drivers of the recent rise in inflation globally and in canada. i know this is directly relevant to your study, so i have given my remarks to the clerk to share with committee members. i look forward to further exploring these issues with you today. before moving to your questions, i ’ d like to talk to you — and canadians — about three things. first, i ’ d like to review the bank of canada ’ s actions over the course of the pandemic : what we were trying to achieve, what happened and what would have happened if we hadn ’ t acted. second, i want to speak to the concerns many canadians have about the rising cost of living. i know many people are worried about prices at the gas pump and the cost of groceries, housing affordability and how to save enough for retirement. and that angst has been compounded by everything we ’ ve gone through over the past two years of this pandemic. third, i want to talk about what ’ s next. this latest wave of the pandemic is fading, and life is starting to return to normal — or a new normal. i want to share what canadians can expect to see in the economy, with inflation and from the bank. the bank of canada ’ s actions at the onset of the pandemic, uncertainty skyrocketed, financial markets seized up and economic activity fell off a cliff. about 3 million canadians lost their jobs and