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That, in part, explains why citizens interface with the South African central bank via banknotes and coin, but there is not a SARB branch at which they can establish a direct link with the institution. However, this was not always the case because the SARB of yesteryear extended its branch network in the latter part of the 1920s through to the 1930s in order to get closer to and service the public.
In 1668, Sweden became the first-known country to set up a central bank. It is the oldest central bank in existence.
The Bank of England was founded in 1694 and, given the extent of British colonial expansion and trade, it was, for a long time, the most influential
central bank in the world.
The US Federal Reserve was founded only in 1914, when World War I began. Compared with Sweden and Britain, this was rather late. Interestingly, this was long after the founding of the US as a
country.
Interestingly, in 1893, long before the US Federal Reserve came into existence, there was severe panic in the US, which saw the failure of about 500 banks. Also noteworthy is that 1914, the year the US Federal Reserve was founded, was a much ‘better’ year in terms of such
failures, with well more than 100!
In a public lecture delivered at the West Virginia University College of Economics in 2017, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave a fascinating account about why the US central bank was founded so late relative to other jurisdictions. The link to a transcript of the lecture can be find in the references section of this book.
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