The text-book description of central banking functions holds valid in a general way for all countries. The main functions of the Bank include:-
(i) Formulation and implementation of monetary policy
(ii) Issuer of currency
(iii) Banker to the Government and to banks
(iv) Provider of an efficient payment, settlement and clearing system
(v) Management of the public debt
(vi) Management of foreign exchange reserves
(vii) Regulator and supervisor of banks
(viii) Adviser to the Government on financial matters.
The effectiveness of the role and functions of Central Banks in achieving the desired results depends greatly on the extent to which monetary policy and fiscal policy are co-ordinated.
Sir William Newton Street, Port Louis, Mauritius Tel : (230) 2084164, Fax: 230 2089204 Telex: 4253 MAUBNK IW - 4253 B MAUBNK IW
The Bank of Namibia, as a central bank of the Republic of Namibia, is responsible for a number of functions, which lie outside the domain of other banks and financial institutions.
The Bank functions in terms of the Bank of Namibia Act of 1990, as amended. The Bank:
· Issues notes and coins
In terms of the BON Act of 1990, the BON has the sole right to issue bank notes and coins in Namibia
· Banker to Commercial Banks
The commercial banks hold accounts at the BON for inter-bank clearing and settlement claims. Settlement of the day to day inter-bank balances is achieved by debiting or crediting the individual bank's accounts at the BON.
· Banker to the Government
The Bank of Namibia administers the financial accounts of the central government. The Bank also acts as advisor on monetary and financial policies; it handles periodic issue of the Treasury bills and government bonds.
· Custodian of foreign reserves
The Bank administers Namibia's foreign reserves. The BON has accounts with other central banks and financial institutions in the main financial centers abroad.
Postal Address : P O Box 2882 Windhoek Namibia Physical Address : 71 Robert Mugabe Avenue Windhoek Tel: +264(0)612835111 Fax: +264 (0) 612835067
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) was founded on July 13, 1990, on the basis of the Russian Republic Bank of the State Bank of the USSR. Accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, it was originally called the State Bank of the RSFSR.
On December 2, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR passed the Law on the Central Bank of the RSFSR (Bank of Russia), which declared the Bank of Russia a legal entity and the main bank of the RSFSR, accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. The law specified the functions of the bank in organising money circulation, monetary regulation, foreign economic activity and regulation of the activities of joint-stock and co-operative banks.
In June 1991 the Statute of the Central Bank of the RSFSR (Bank of Russia), accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, was approved.
In November 1991 when the Commonwealth of Independent States was founded and Union structures dissolved, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR declared the Central Bank of the RSFSR to be the only body of state monetary and foreign exchange regulation in the RSFSR. The functions of the State Bank of the USSR in issuing money and setting the rouble exchange rate were transferred to it. The Central Bank of the RSFSR was instructed to assume before January 1, 1992, full control of the assets, technical facilities and other resources of the State Bank of the USSR and all its institutions, enterprises and organisations.
On December 20, 1991, the State Bank of the USSR was disbanded and all its assets, liabilities and property in the RSFSR were transferred to the Central Bank of the RSFSR (Bank of Russia), which several months later was renamed the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia).
In 1991-1992 an extensive network of commercial banks was created in the Russian Federation under Bank of Russia guidance through commercialisation of the specialised banks' branches. The disbandment of the State Bank of the USSR was followed by changes in the chart of accounts, the establishment of a network of Central Bank cash settlement centres and their provision with computer technology. The Central Bank began to buy and sell foreign exchange in the currency market it established and to set and publish the official exchange rates of foreign currencies against the rouble.
In December 1992 as a result of the establishment of a single centralised federal treasury system, accountable to the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Russia was no longer required to provide cash services for the federal budget.
The Bank of Russia carries out its functions, which were established by the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 75) and the Law on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) (Article 22), independently from the federal, regional and local government structures.
In 1992-1995 to maintain the stability of the banking system the Bank of Russia set up a system of supervision and inspection of commercial banks and a system of foreign-exchange regulation and foreign-exchange control. As an agent of the Ministry of Finance, it organised a government securities market, known as the GKO market, and began to participate in its operations.
On April 26, 1995, the Bank of Russia stopped extending loans to finance the federal budget deficit and centralised loans to individual industries and sectors of the economy.
To override the consequences of the 1998 financial crisis, the Bank of Russia took steps towards restructuring the banking system in order to improve the performance of commercial banks and increase their liquidity. Insolvent banks were removed from the banking services market, using the procedures established by the applicable law. Of great importance for the post-crisis recovery of the banking sector was the creation of the Agency for Restructuring Credit Institutions (ARCO) and the Inter-Agency Co-ordinating Committee for Banking Sector Development in Russia (ICC). Thanks to the effective measures implemented by the Bank of Russia, ARCO and ICC, by the middle of 2001 Russia's banking sector had on the whole overcome the aftermath of the crisis.
The Bank of Russia monetary policy was designed to maintain financial stability and create conditions conducive to sustainable economic growth. The Bank of Russia promptly reacted to any change in the real demand for money and took steps to stimulate positive economic dynamics, cut interest rates, damp down inflationary expectations and slow the inflation rate. As a result, the ruble gained somewhat in real terms and financial market stability increased.
Due to the balanced monetary and exchange-rate policies pursued by the Bank of Russia, the country's international reserves have grown and there have been no sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate. The efforts made by the Bank of Russia with regard to the payment system aimed at increasing its reliability and efficiency in the name of financial and economic stability. To make the Russian payment system more transparent, the Bank of Russia introduced reports on payments by credit institutions and its own regional branches, which took into account international experience, methodology and practice of surveillance over payment systems.
The long-term goals of the continuing banking sector reform in Russia are to enhance stability of the banking system, improve the banking sector's performance in accumulating household savings and corporate funds and transforming them into loans and investments and prevent the use of credit institutions for unfair commercial purposes.
The Bank of Slovenia is the bank of issue and the central bank of the Republic of Slovenia. It was established on June 25, 1991 when the Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia promulgated the central bank act, the Law on the Bank of Slovenia.
The Bank's primary task is to take care of the stability of the domestic currency and to ensure the liquidity of payments within the country and with foreign countries. The Bank is a non-governmental independent institution; it is obliged to present a report on its operation to the Parliament once every six months. It is the bank of banks and the lender of last resort, it is the supervisor of the banking system (but not of other financial intermediaries non-banks). The Bank is the banker of the government and conducts no corporate business and none with natural persons. The bank is not allowed to take up loans abroad for its own account, nor for the account of third persons.
The Bank is chaired by the Governor. He has a Deputy and three Vice Governors. The executive bodies of the bank are the Governor and the Governing Board. The Governor of the Bank of Slovenia is the Chairman of the Governing Board. The latter is composed of eleven members, five of them internal (Governor, Deputy Governor and Vice Governors) and six of them external independent experts not tied to any institution under the control of the Bank.
Slovenska 35 1505 Ljubljana Slovenija Tel.: +386 (1) 471 90 00 Fax: +386 (1) 251 55 16 Telex: 31214 BS LJB SI
The Bank is in charge of Monetary Policy. Monetary policy decisions are made by the Monetary and Credit Policy Committee. The members are the Governor; the Deputy Governor; Executive Directors: Research, Finance, Supervision, Operations; Directors: Commercial Banking, Research, External Operations, Trade & External Debt and Legal Counsel. Other officers attend on invitation.
Since it's inception the Bank of Zambia has gone through various changes in it's organisational structure. Overtime, this has resulted into an organisational structure which has become more focused on the core activities of the central Bank. Furthermore the Bank has shed off staff in areas where outsiders could easily be contracted to provide the same services more satisfactorily. The areas now being contracted to external bodies include : outside security,canteen services, club and maintenance. As a result of the restructuring exercise, the Bank has seen the total number of staff fall from 1,400 to well below 850. But while more such functions have been dropped, others more critical in the new liberalised environment have emerged. These new areas are mainly in the policy making arena.
HEAD OFFICE LOCATION BANK SQURE CAIRO ROAD LUSAKA POSTAL ADDRESS P.O BOX 30080 LUSAKA ZAMBIA Telephone (+260) 1 228888 (+260) 1 228903-20 Fax (+260) 1 221764
Functions and the role of the Central Bank The Bank's most important objectives are to maintain the external stability of the Netherlands Antillean guilder (NAf.) and to promote the efficient functioning of the financial system in the Netherlands Antilles.
To realize these objectives, the Bank, as supervisory authority, has frequently recurred to credit control measures and/or to changing the discount rate.
The functions of the Bank, explicitly summed up in the Bank Charter, are;
First, the Bank is the only institution entitled by law to issue paper money in the Netherlands Antilles. The Bank also is charged with the circulation of coins.
Second, the Bank supervises banking and credit institutions to guarantee depositors and other creditors funds at banking and credit institutions in particular and the soundness of the financial sector in general.
Third, the Bank manages the foreign exchange reserves of the Netherlands Antilles, which includes regulating of the transfer of payments between residents and nonresidents of the Netherlands Antilles.
Finally, the Bank acts as the government's treasurer by receiving and making payments from and to the public through the tax collector's accounts at the Central Bank.
To strengthen the Central Bank's independent position vis-а-vis the government, the Bank Charter limits the monetary financing of budget deficits to 10% of the central government's revenues in the previous year. This limitation must be seen in the context of an overdraft facility to meet liquidity deficits of the public sector that result from seasonal variations in government revenues.
Monetary and banking supervision Two of the Bank's basic tasks are to control the amount of liquid assets in circulation (monetary supervision), and to act as the supervisory body for credit and banking institutions operating in the Netherlands Antilles (prudential supervision). Furthermore, the Bank is one of the government's main advisors on financial and economic affairs.
The monetary policy of the "Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen" during the last two decades has been geared toward promoting a stable value of the NAf with respect to the US dollar. Since 1971 the official NAf/$ rate of 1.79 has been firmly supported by the monetary authorities. The Bank's main reason for pegging the NAf to the US dollar is that over the years, more than 60% of its international trade relations have been conducted with the United States or in US dollars. To maintain the dollar standard, the Bank must ensure a sufficient supply of foreign exchange. To manage the foreign exchange reserves of the Netherlands Antilles, the Bank in the past has exerted control over the credit extended by commercial banks.
The prudential supervision of banking and credit institutions is aimed at controlling the soundness of the financial system in the Netherlands Antilles and at safeguarding the deposits of creditors at commercial banks. This supervision is pursued mainly through the Bank's analysis of the solvency and liquidity development of banking and credit institutions.
Simon Bolivar Plein 1 Willemstad, Curacao Netherlands Antilles Phone: (599 9) 434-5500 Fax: (599 9) 461-5004 Telex: BNACU NA
