100 Years of SARB, the Pandemic and Recent Events

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) was founded 30 June 1921, shortly after the end of World War I. Its primary objective was to restore and maintain order in the issue and circulation of domestic currency and restore the gold standard to the pre-World War I rate of exchange. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the minutes of the first Board meeting show the first order of business was ‘the purchase of property in Pretoria for £7,000 and the first order of banknotes.’ 

And so, the first major central bank outside of Europe and the US, and the first in Africa, started work.

As SARB’s press release shows with its list of challenges it have had to face, the first 100 years has been lively. ‘Over the past 100 years, the SARB has navigated through the tail end of the Spanish flu as well as the Great Depression, the Second World War, the abandonment of the gold standard, the introduction of the rand, the oil crisis, the end of the Cold War, the end of apartheid, and several financial and economic crises.’