Page 169 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

Unathi Kamlana left the central bank to serve as the first Commissioner of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. /SARB
Kamlana joined the SARB two years after the onset of the global financial crisis. “We needed to re-think financial sector regulatory architecture. We had started the conversation to introduce Twin Peaks as a framework,” he said.
Kamlana, who has since left the SARB’s Prudential Authority to become the first Commissioner of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, led the work while at the National Treasury, which resulted in the publication of the Red Book in 2011. Lesetja Kganyago signed off on the Red Book, after which he joined the central bank as Deputy Governor following a 16-year career at the National Treasury. In the new role at the central bank, Kganyago oversaw the process of financial sector regulation reform on behalf of the SARB.
“The SARB was looking for someone within to champion that work. [Kganyago] had the conversation with me about this work the SARB would eventually implement when all the legislation for Twin Peaks was approved. The rest is history,” Kamlana said.
“We are in a much stronger position both from a capital and liquidity buffers perspective compared to when we were going into the 2008−09 crisis. In addition, we had much more in-depth conversations on the operational resilience of financial institutions and financial market infrastructures,” Kamlana reflected.
The onset of COVID-19 is an important case study to assess the efficacy of Twin Peaks.
According to Momoniat: “The 2008 global financial crisis forced these changes. We started going to the Financial Stability Board. We were able to look at what other countries were doing. We were able to develop that Red Book. By that stage, Lesetja had gone over [to the SARB]. The prudential requirements got tight as Basel got stricter.”
Deputy Director-General Ismail Momoniat. /National Treasury
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