bank note company is now fully owned by the south african reserve bank and continues to print quality bank notes for south africa and for the export market. in this case, ownership by a legal monopoly has not compromised quality or competitiveness. 7. the symbols of value you have been working on are much sought after. once a bank note makes it into production the numbers involved are staggering. i will not attempt to give exhaustive statistics regarding the production of bank notes in south africa. it is enough to say that the value of bank notes in circulation outside the south african reserve bank exceeds r50 billion – or about one thousand one hundred rand for every man, woman and child in south africa. and that thousand rand plus is roughly made up of two r10 notes, three r20 notes, two r50 notes, seven r100 notes and one r200 note. although in your design competition you worked on a r500 note, we are far from needing it. 8. i am happy to confess that the issuing of bank notes is a monopoly. this sole right was legally granted to the south african reserve bank by the south african parliament. as a quid pro quo, the bank pays over a substantial portion of its profits to the government. in making sure that potential competitors end up in jail, the bank co - operates closely with the south african police service. it is reassuring to note that this collaboration is successful, and that the incidence of former us secretary of state, henry kissinger as quoted in business day, 30 august 2006. speech by mr t. t. mboweni, governor of the south african reserve bank, at the launch of the upgraded banknote, pretoria : 17 january 2006. counterfeit notes is very limited thanks to the sterling efforts of the police, the reserve bank and the banks in the private sector. 9. the competition emphasises not only the more artistic, political and symbolic dimensions of bank note design, but also the matter of security features. changes and improvements in the appearance and security features of a bank note series are crucial in making the lives of counterfeiters miserable, and in maintaining public confidence in our money. unfortunately, nobody has yet devised a system for legally making counterfeiters ’ lives also short and brutish. 10. the design competition correctly recognises the importance of the sadc region to our future, by requiring entrants to also propose designs for bank notes in other sadc countries. a greater degree of monetary integration in the region

francois groepe : strengthening south africa ’ s resolution framework for financial institutions address by mr francois groepe, deputy governor of the south african reserve bank, at the public workshop on the discussion paper titled “ strengthening south africa ’ s resolution framework for financial institutions, cape town, 15 september 2015. * * * introduction : addressing ‘ too big to fail ’ after the global financial crisis of 2007 / 08, and the severe and lingering consequences thereof on the global economy, one of the key items on the agenda of the g - 20 ( the group of twenty finance ministers and central bank governors ) was to address the ‘ too big to fail ’ problem. during the past couple of decades, financial sectors have outgrown the size of their national economies and have expanded beyond their national borders. the individual balance sheets of large, global financial conglomerates are now larger than those of most economies. for example, the balance sheet of jp morgan chase amounted to us $ 2, 6 trillion in 2014 – larger than the gross domestic product, or gdp, of all but the six largest economies in the world1. moreover, the activities of these large financial institutions are highly interconnected, and the services they provide are inseparably integrated into the modern financial system and the global economy. unlike non - financial corporates, which can be liquidated in the event of failure even if they are large, the failure of a single large financial institution can disrupt the functioning of the whole financial system and the economy so that the ultimate cost of the failure far exceeds the initial losses that caused the failure. 1 this is what had forced governments to intervene in past financial crises, and what came to be known as the ‘ too big to fail ’ problem. the ‘ too big to fail ’ problem is not only a global phenomenon. in south africa, banks ’ total assets amount to some r4, 4 trillion. this approximates to 125 per cent of south africa ’ s gdp of about r3, 7 trillion. the assets of long - term insurers amount to about r2, 4 trillion, and those of self - administered pension and provident funds to r1, 7 trillion2. these are just some examples to show how important financial institutions have become in our own economy, and how exposed the system has become to the consequences of a failure of one of the significant financial institutions, especially since the financial system is highly concentrated and interconnected. even if government were willing to support these institutions in the event