Thank you for joining us today to mark the launch of South Africa’s deposit insurance scheme. The big picture is that South Africa is joining a very common practice, globally, of offering deposit insurance. It is a universal business model of banks to fund their assets with borrowed money, and so depositors are actually investors in banks. Usually, we say investors must accept the risks of making investments. But deposits are special, and most governments protect them.
"Thank you for joining us today, to mark the launch of South Africa’s deposit insurance scheme," stated Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. He highlighted that "the big picture is that South Africa is joining a very common practice, globally, of offering deposit insurance." Kganyago elaborated on how it is "a universal business model of banks to fund their assets with borrowed money," noting that "depositors are actually investors in banks." He explained that "usually, we say investors must accept the risks of making investments," but emphasized that "deposits are special, and most governments protect them."