Some facts about the Reserve Bank of Australia
The Australian Reserve Bank, like other central banks worldwide, is a private
company, therefore unlike a public corporation does
not have to publish accounts.
Prior to 1959 the Commonwealth of Australia issued and printed its own money and
had control of the printing of money. However after the 1959 Reserve Bank Act,
the Reserve Bank was established as a stand alone independent foreign ADI (authorised
deposit-taking institution), which
took over the printing of money and lent
the money it printed to the Commonwealth at interest. So instead of the Commonwealth printing its own money, we
have a foreign body corporate printing our money and lending it to the
Commonwealth which the Commonwealth needs to pay back!
"In
approximately 1950, both the Australian economy and the federally-owned
Commonwealth Bank were undergoing a period of unprecedented growth and change. After the war, special legislation made provision for the Commonwealth Bank to
facilitate the financing of housing construction and industrial development.
‘Credit foncier loans’ were renamed ‘home loans’, and as the country’s
population and economy grew, hundreds of new Commonwealth Bank branches were
established and agencies opened. At this stage the bank was still functioning in
its dual roles as both a central bank (with formalised powers in relation to
monetary and banking policy, currency issue and exchange control) and a savings
and trading bank. In its capacity as a savings bank, it was competing
against an increasing array of private banks and finance companies.
By 1959, the commercial banking business of the Commonwealth Bank was separated
from the regulatory function. The Reserve Bank Act 1959 reconstituted the
Commonwealth Bank as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)
to act from 14 January 1960 as the nation’s central bank. Control of the bank’s
remaining savings and trading activities was assumed by the newly created
Commonwealth Banking Corporation (CBC)
– which subsequently reverted to its predecessor’s name: the Commonwealth Bank
of Australia.?
"Established under the Fisher government's
Commonwealth Bank Act 1911, the bank commenced operations in 1912.
During the 1920s and 1930s the bank's functions
included those of a central bank. This was increasingly so during the 1940s and
1950s. In 1959 the Menzie's government enacted the Commonwealth Bank Act
1959 and the Reserve Bank Act 1959. These acts formally separated the central
banking function from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and came into effect in
1960.
The central bank functions transferred to the
Reserve Bank of Australia and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's name was
changed to the Commonwealth Banking Corporation."
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