to help establish a deposit - insurance scheme for south africa. one of the most important functions of the regulator of banks is to authorise the establishment of new banks. the power to grant licences provides the mechanism for preventing the entry of banks whose presence might be prejudicial to the interests of depositors and the soundness of the banking system. in south africa our approach is to grant licences to all applicants that comply with a stringent set of entry criteria. these criteria are that the establishment of a bank should be in the public interest ; no single shareholder should be able to dictate the bank ’ s direction without due regard to the interests of its depositors ; the bank should be governed and managed by directors and managers with proven ability and integrity to pursue the interests of the owners without harming the interests of depositors ; the bank should establish operational and control systems commensurate with the complexity of the risks and exposures it takes ; and the bank should be established with sufficient financial strength to ensure adequate capital and sustainable profitability. banks are monitored continuously to ensure that they remain fundamentally healthy. this has mainly been done through quantitative and qualitative off - site assessments. in 1999 the bank began the preparatory work for on - site reviews of credit - risk management systems and evaluations of asset quality. the process is expected to become fully operational in the second half of 2000. substantial progress has also been made with the development of consolidated supervision, ie in reviewing both banking and non - banking activities conducted by a banking group domestically and internationally. despite all these procedures, it is not possible to guarantee that banks will not experience some difficulties from time to time. in such cases, the policy of the reserve bank is to assist only banks which have a temporary liquidity problem, whereas insolvent banks are allowed to exit from the system in an orderly manner which does the least harm to the banking system and depositors. in all cases of bank failure, the bank ’ s management is replaced and the individuals involved would normally not be permitted to hold influential positions in banks again. when a bank experiences funding difficulties on a short - term basis, lender - of - last - resort assistance is provided to it. lender - of - last - resort assistance is a recognised responsibility and practice of central banks. the objective of such assistance is to enable the bank concerned to implement corrective measures and to prevent the contagion effect of a run on the bank. the liquidity under

know the security features and make the checking of money second nature. the security features on south african rands are only useful if people use them. it is every user ’ s responsibility to get to know the upgraded banknotes and check the security features. may we also take the opportunity to thank the team and their collaborators for their energy and effort in ensuring the success of the project as a whole and ensuring that the banknotes are distributed on time and for the efforts in ensuring public confidence in our banknotes. thank you for coming here today and for your participation in this process and we wish to encourage all of you to spread the message about these very important changes to our banknotes. thank you.