Responsibilities of Reserve Bank

Question: Discuss about the Responsibilities of Reserve Bank. Answer: Introduction: The Reserve Bank of Australia is the central bank of the continent which is mainly involved in the conduct of the various monetary policies, entails towards protection of a strong fiscal system and issues the nations currency as well. Since it is the policy making body it has the authority to give some chosen banking related as well as registry services to a number of Australian Government agencies and abroad central banks and official financial institutions. The RBA also has the responsibility of supervision of the gold and foreign exchange reserves. The bank derives its functions, roles and responsibilities from the Reserve Bank Act 1959. As per the said Act there are two boards namely the Reserve Bank Board and the Payments Systems Board. The former one is governed by the monetary policies which are spelt out in Section 10(2) and 11(1) of the Act. The first section details that it is the duty of the RBA board to ensure that the fiscal and the banking policies of the bank is formulated in such a manner so as to ensure that it provides greatest advantage to the citizens of Australia and that the powers of the Bank are performed in a manner which would ensure that the Australian currency is stable, it provides full employment in the nation and lastly it ensures that the people of Australia prosper economically. Section 11(1) of the said Act requires the officials of the RBA to ensure that the government is kept updated of the banks present and ongoing policy structure. However the second board i.e. the payments systems board is defined in Section 10B(3) of the Act which states that the board within the limits of its powers should make sure that the banks payment system policy is designed in a manner which provides the maximum benefit to the people of the nation and the powers of the Bank under the Payment System (Regulation) Act 1998 and the Payment Systems and Netting Act 1998 are performed in a manner which would ensure that the best efforts are being made to control any kinds of risk in the financial system, encouraging the competence of the payments system and enhancing the competition in the market for the payment services which is in line with overall steadiness of the present economic system. As discussed, the Reserve Bank of Australia, entails specialised banking services to the Australian government, agencies, other central banks as well as the overseas banks. The Reserve Bank extends facilities to the Government which helps them to take care of a group of bank accounts known as the Official Public Account (OPA) Group, the total of which connotes the Governments routine cash status. The banking facilities provided by RBA includes the provisioning of the term deposit facility which helps in the investment of extra finances, the interchanging of balances to and from agencies accounts which are maintained by the transactional bankers, and lastly accessibility to an overdraft balance. The RBA offers various transactional banking services to various Government agencies of Australia which include facilities of bank accounts, online payment services which is inclusive of the on line and card based payments, dispensation and allocating of the major chunk of electronic direct credit and debit operations which is inclusive of medical rebates, salaries and various payments to suppliers, various collection and receivables related services such as internet, on call and online card based services, payment facilities across the borders which includes direct entry, electronic funds transfer and cheque payments as well, document printing services wherein the agencies can by electronic means ask the RBA to issue cheques and such other payment instruments on their behalf and ensure reconciliation of the cheques, storehouse and corroboration services which should include such a system which would help in detection of frauds. As discussed earlier, the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 gives the Payments System Board constitutional powers to take care of some of the issues related to the accessibility of the clearing and the settlement systems. Further to this, the RTGS system was introduced very late in Australia, at around June 1998 which led to an impressive eradication of the settlement risk since over ninety percent of the payment in value terms which was being conducted between the Australian Financial Institutions which are now settled by the usage of real time system. However thus settlement process is not recommendable for the small payments. There are three main consumer clearing streams i.e. the Australian Paper Clearing System was the cheques and such other paper related payment instructions, the Bulk Electronic Clearing System for an instant debit and credit payment instructions and the Consumer Electronic Clearing System for the ATM and EFTPOS transactions. Although CECS had not started t o operate because it had yet not attained permission from the Australian Commission and Consumer Commission until 2001. Hence the ATM and the EFTPOS clearings are dependent upon the individual bilateral agreements amongst the players. Thus on a concluding note it is understood that the main responsibility of the Reserve Bank of Australia is to formulate such fiscal and monetary policies which would help to maintain the banking system in line with the financial stability. It performs the role of a banker for the government of the nation and also issues the currency note to ensure that there is financial stability and the balance of payments is maintained within the economy. Lastly, the RBA also plays a crucial role in performing the function of banking by extending its arms to the various overseas banks and regulating the various banking transactions such as that of an NEFT, RTGS or cheque clearance. However it does not provide banking services to the general public and is active in providing direct banking service to the government, commercial banks and such other clients. References: APRA., (1998), Memorandum of Understanding: The Reserve Bank of Australia and The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Available at https://www.apra.gov.au/AboutAPRA/Documents/MoU-RBA-Reserve-Bank-of-Australia.PDF (Accessed 13th March 2017) Centralbanksguide. Com., (2015), Reserve Bank of Australia, Available at https://www.centralbanksguide.com/reserve+bank+of+australia/ (Accessed 13th March 2017) Lowe,P., (2015), The Reserve Bank of Australias regulatory responsibilities, Available at https://www.bis.org/review/r151109a.pdf (Accessed 13th March 2017) Reserve Bank of Australia, (2017), Our Role, Available at https://www.rba.gov.au/about-rba/our-role.html (Accessed 13th march 2017) Stevens,G., (2010), Reserve Bank of Australia The Role of Finance, Available at https://www.business.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/1325786/10-20_Reserve_Bank_of_Australia,_the_Role_of_Finance.pdf (Accessed 13th March 2017)