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List of
Central Banks Worldwide
1.
Establishment
The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan (RMA) was established
under the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan Act, passed by
the 56th session of the National Assembly of Bhutan in 1982.
Since then, certain provisions of the Act have been
partially amended by the Financial Institutions Act of
Bhutan 1992.
2. Legal Aspects
According to the RMA Act, the RMA is a body corporate with
perpetual succession and a common seal, and has the power
"to enter into contracts and issue obligations, to sue and
to be sued in its own name, to acquire, hold and dispose of
movable and immovable property and to pledge and mortgage
the same, and to exercise all powers granted to it by the
provisions of the Act. Therefore, the RMA is a special
jurisdical person that is separate and distinct from the
Government. In other words, unlike government ministries,
departments or agencies, the RMA is solely responsible for
its actions, and any act on its part cannot be construed as
being an act of the government.
3. Capital
Against an authorized capital of Nu.100 million, the paid-up
portion of the RMA's capital is presently Nu. 4,400,000,
which in accordance with the provisions of the Act, is held
exclusively by the Royal Government. The paid-up capital can
be increased by such further amounts as may be proposed by
the Board of Directors and approved by the Government.
4. Purposes
The RMA's purposes as specified in Part II, Section 6 of the
RMA Act are:-
to regulate the availabilty of money and its international
exchange; to promote monetary stability;
to supervise and regulate banks and other financial
institutions; and
to promote credit and exchange conditions, and a sound
financial structure conducive to the balanced growth of the
economy.
(a) The function of regulating the availability of money
means that the RMA is responsible for exercising control
over the amount of banknotes and coins in circulation.
Moreover, since the national currency, the Ngultrum, is
pegged at parity with the Indian rupee, there is an implicit
guarantee by the RMA that it can be exchanged at parity for
the rupee for all permissible purposes. For this reason, it
is necessary for the RMA to ensure that all currency notes
and coins issued by it are backed one hundred percent by its
assets in either Indian rupees, or other readily available
convertible currencies.
(b) Monetary stability means that the price level as
measured by the Consumer Price Index should remain stable,
or change very little, over time. This in turn means that
the RMA is responsible for controlling money supply growth.
Money supply, in its broadest sense, is a measure of total
liquidity in the economy and consists not only of currency
notes and coins in circulation, but also the deposit
liabilities of the banks, in the form of current, savings
and term deposits. Even in Bhutan's particular circumstances
(one-to-one peg between the Ngultrum and the Indian Rupee)
an unduly high rate of growth of money supply might lead to
inflation, while a rate of growth below the rate of growth
of the economy could possibly be deflationary. Therefore,
the RMA's objective must be to ensure that the growth of
money supply is generally consistent with the rate of growth
of the economy.
(c) Supervision of Banks and other financial institutions
involves ensuring that commercial banks and other financial
institutions conduct their business on a sound and
prudential basis and according to the various laws and
regulations in force. It also includes the licensing of
financial institutions.
(d) Promotion of Financial Development refers to the
establishment of an effective financial system, with the aid
of which the financial transactions necessary for the smooth
functioning of the economy can be carried out with a minimum
amount of cost and time involved. In this connection, the
Bank has to be a facilitator of advanced clearing and
transfer systems. It also implies that the necessary banking
services, as, for example, deposit facilities and loan
facilities, are made available. Of importance is also the
establishment of a deposit insurance system and the
availablity of certain specialised institutions, which could
be represented, for example, by an industrial development
bank, and microfinance institutions, and the facilitation of
a money market, primary and secondary markets in securities,
a foreign exchange market, and a capital market.
In order to achieve its purposes, the RMA has been given the
responsibility to act as:
the bank of issue;
the banker to the banks;the banker and advisor to the
Government; and
the guardian of the external reserves.
(a) As the bank of issue, the RMA has been granted the sole
right to issue banknotes and coins in Bhutan, and any other
person issuing currency notes, coins or any other documents
or tokens payable to the bearer on demand and having the
appearance of, or purporting to be currency, is punishable
under law.
(b) As the bankers' bank the RMA has the responsibility to
accept deposits from the commercial banks to act as
prudential reserves against their deposit liabilities (e.g.,
cash reserve ratio), to discount commercial and government
paper on their behalf, and to act as lender of last resort
in case any bank or banks faces short-term liquidity
shortages. It also involves the providing clearing
facilities for inter-bank transactions.
(c) As banker to the Government the RMA serves as the
depository and fiscal agent of government (e.g., sale of
securities on behalf of the Government). The RMA may also
make temporary advances to the Government, and with the
approval of the Government to government institutions,
agencies and local government bodies.
(d) As the advisor to the Government, the RMA may advise the
Government on monetary and financial matters, and any other
matters which in its opinion are likely to affect the
achievement of its purposes. It may also be requested by the
Government for advice on any matters relating to its
purposes.
(e) As the Guardian of the country's external reserves, the
RMA is the depository of the official external assets of the
country, including gold and foreign currency reserves. This
also implies the responsibility for the Exchange Rate Policy
and External Reserve Management with a view to the
prudential management of the funds, with due regard to
safety, liquidity, and profitability.
4. Management and Organization Structure
The functions of the RMA can be roughly divided into (i)
policy function, and (ii) its execution. Thus, the
organizational structure of the RMA includes a policy making
organ, i.e. the Board of Directors, and an executive organ,
i.e. the management.
Board of Directors
In terms of the RMA Act, all powers of the RMA are vested in
its Board of Directors which is responsible for the policy
as well as the general administration of the organization.
The Board of Directors presently consists of seven members,
including the Managing Director. The Finance Minister is the
Chairman of the Board, and in his absence, meetings are
chaired by one of the senior Directors.
Management
The Managing Director is the chief executive officer of the
RMA in charge of, and responsible to the Board of Directors
for the implementation of policy, and day-to-day management
of the RMA. He is assisted by a Deputy Managing Director.
Senior officers are appointed by the Board of Directors, and
junior support staff by the Managing Director. Except for
the Managing Director and the Deputy Managing Director, who
are seconded from the Royal Civil Service, none of the other
employees are civil servants, and the terms and conditions
of their employment are governed by rules and regulations
framed by the Board of Directors.
At present the RMA does not have any branch offices and
thus, except for two staff members, who are responsible for
looking after the operations of the Clearing House in
Phuntsholing, all staff are located at the Head Office in
Thimphu. The RMA presently has around 127 employees
including contract Personnel and wage workers (as of 2003
PIS record). The Organisation Structure of the RMA consists
of eleven divisions as follows:
(a) The Issue Division is responsible for banknote issuance.
It arranges for the printing and minting of new banknotes
and coins, and distributes and collects banknotes and coins
to and from the branches of the commercial banks, the
government and the public. Banknotes received from banks,
government, and the public are routinely examined and
classified as fit or unfit for further circulation, and
unfit notes are destroyed by shredding.
(b) The Research & Statistics Division gathers and compiles
economic and financial statistics with a view to evaluate
monetary and economic conditions and to make an assessment
of the prospects for the domestic economy. The principle
areas in which statistics are compiled are money and
banking, the balance of payments, prices, government
finance, and other areas of general economic and financial
interest. The Division is also in charge of the Institute
for Financial Sector Development.
(c) The Banking Division executes daily transactions with
the commercial banks and the government and provides
depository services with international Financial
Institutions.
(d) The Foreign Exchange and Reserve Management Division is
responsible for the formulation, revision and implementation
of regulations concerning foreign exchage dealings.
(e) The Financial Institutions Supervision Division frames
rules and regulations to be observed by the financial
institutions, and supervises them through both off-site
examinations and on-site inspections.
(f) The Administration and Finance Division is responsible
for providing administrative services and for the
recruitment and maintenance of personnel records.
(h) The Information Technology Division. This Division is
responsible for planning, developing and supporting the
computerization of the RMA's operations, development of data
processing systems, managing and supporting of the RMA
application systems, database, network and the RMA website.
(i) The Internal Audit Division is responsible for carrying
out regular inspection of the accounts, business procedures
and other matters relating to internal management.
(j) The Human Resource Development Division is vested with
the responsiblity to assess and bridge skills, strategies
through short-to-long term HRD programmes within and outside
Bhutan.
(k) The Hospitality and Protocols Division is responsible
for hospitality arrangement, RMA premises maintenance and
security arrangements.
(l) Library Division was set up with the objective of
establishing a store house of knowledge and reference
materials for the officers and staff of the organization and
for the employees of other organizations.
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