lesetja kganyago : africa is rising – seizing the opportunity address by mr lesetja kganyago, governor of the south african reserve bank, at the swift regional conference, cape town, 5 may 2015. * * * chairperson, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen ; it is an honour for me to welcome you all to cape town, south africa on this occasion of the swift regional conference. “ africa is rising – seizing the opportunity ” this is the theme for this year ’ s conference. i think that you will agree that this theme is appropriate, as africa is blessed with abundant resources and although we face several challenges, these are far outweighed by the many opportunities that the continent offers. we acknowledge that taking advantage of these opportunities require strong political will and pan - african cooperation, however, the numerous regional integration initiatives taking place all over the continent are testimony that this is indeed possible. this is the 22nd swift african regional conference ( arc ) and the delegates include policy makers, industry leaders and the broader financial community from across the african continent. the typical african regional conference attracts up to 500 delegates from around 40 countries, and is a unique forum for networking, education, discussion, and debate – all within a collaborative environment. i believe that discussions in the next three day will focus, inter alia, on how intra - africa trade and economic growth can be boosted, a look at how the african securities markets are evolving and the growth plans of african corporates as they expand across the continent. the conference will also focus on leveraging the role of technology innovations in africa to benefit the financial industry and support sustainable growth objectives of the continent. from the payment system environment, we are aware that intra - africa payments have in the past mostly been facilitated through correspondent banking arrangements, as has been the standard for cross border payments globally. in practice, intra - africa payments are effected through correspondent banking relationships with banking partners normally located within the usa or in europe. most of these correspondent banking arrangements are still used extensively today, but are proving to be inadequate and inefficient. across the continent, several regions have launched initiatives to facilitate more efficient transacting mechanisms within their respective regions. the advantage of these initiatives is that transacting parties now have more control over their payments, within the region. concerns have been raised about the general reduction in correspondent banking relationships, and related financial services globally. the drivers of the reduction in correspondent banking relationships are not clear, but we sur

on the establishment of the brics bond fund to support the development of local - currency bond markets in the other brics countries, and a stocktake exercise on financial technology as it relates to crypto - assets and the regulation thereof. finally, and very significantly, the brics central banks have, for the first time, conducted a test run of the cra with an actual transfer of funds. this exercise commenced on 3 july and was completed successfully today. 2 brazil, russia, india, china, south africa page 3 of 6 building strong institutions on the african continent is also very important to support development and improve the continent ’ s resilience to shocks. the sarb – through its chairing of the association of african central banks and as the chair of the committee of central bank governors in the southern african development community – has been involved in a number of activities in support of economic and financial integration on the continent. these initiatives have spanned, among other things, the areas of banking supervision, strengthening central - bank independence, regional payment systems, financial - market deepening, financial stability, and financial inclusion. other issues that require urgent attention include the negative impact of the withdrawal of correspondent banking relationships on trade flows and remittances, as well as the limits to domestic revenue mobilisation due to illicit flows. the south african economy south africa ’ s growth outlook remains challenging. at the most recent meeting of the sarb ’ s monetary policy committee earlier this month, the growth forecast for 2018 was revised downwards to 1. 2 % from 1. 7 % in may. the growth forecast for 2019 is 1. 9 % and 2. 0 % for 2020, both of which are significantly lower than the levels required to generate employment and to reduce inequality and poverty rates. while we consider the current monetary policy stance to be broadly supportive of the economy, inflation risks are to the upside, and our fiscal framework is vulnerable. faced with similar conditions back in 1996 under nelson mandela ’ s leadership, the south african government had to make some really difficult decisions. it was resolved to make the required policy choices and strengthen macroeconomic institutions. this garnered investor confidence and placed south africa on a strong economic footing in the early 2000s. recent research conducted by the sarb3 suggests that the collapse in the levels of confidence over the past few years had shaved off around 1 percentage point from 3 theo janse van rensburg and erik visser, 2017, ‘ decoupling from global growth – is confidence becoming