Safeguarding the Crown Jewels: Immunities of Foreign Central Banks and the South African Reserve Bank in South Africa

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Citation: (2009) 21 SA Merc LJ 145
• Date: 25 May 2019
• Published date: 25 May 2019
• Author: Johann de Jager
• Pages: 145-158

Articles

Safeguarding the Crown Jewels: Immunities of

Foreign Central Banks and the South African

Reserve Bank in South Africa

JOHANN DE JAGER*

South African Reserve Bank

Pretoria

1 Introduction

In modern times, the architecture of f‌inancial institutions has undergone

signif‌icant changes. Functional divisions between kinds of intermediaries

have become blurred, and f‌inancial intermediation has increasingly become

global in operation. Central banks, once the de facto captives of political

authorities in many countries, have gained signif‌icant independence and in

modern times operate as centres of autonomy in the management of the

domestic f‌inancial systems of their respective countries.

1

Since central banks typically have grown within the environment provided

by the f‌inancial and economic system of the countries within which they exist,

it follows that different central banks may have somewhat different

constitutional positions and relationships with their respective governments

and f‌inancial systems. Although this may in practice lead to difficulties in

identifying an exhaustive list of functions that may be identif‌ied as

characteristic of such institutions, central banks usually constitute monetary

authorities capable of determining monetary policy within their respective

jurisdictions and are normally responsible for the maintenance, management

and control of the reserves of their respective countries.

2

Central banks in countries with well-established f‌inancial markets mostly

follow a market-orientated approach in the implementation of monetary

policy. This approach to a more market-orientated system of monetary policy

* Dip Iuris B Iuris LLB (Unisa) LLM LLD (RAU). General Counsel, South African Reserve Bank.

Opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent

those of the South African Reserve Bank.

1

See Forewords by Charles Goodhart and Geoffrey Miller in: Rosa M Lastra Legal Foundations of

International Monetary Stability (2006) at vi and xi, respectively.

2

MH de Kock Central Banking 4 ed (1973) at 13; Johann de Jager ‘The South African Reserve Bank:

An Evaluation of the Origin, Evolution and Status of a Central Bank (Part 1)’ (2006) 18 SAMerc LJ 159

at 164; Dr Hans Tietmeyer ‘Central Banking in the European Monetary Union’in: A Decade of Gerhard

De Kock Memorial Lectures 1990-1999 (2000) 53 at 57.

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(2009) 21 SA Merc LJ 145

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