English - Español -Portugues - Deutsch

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.
 

Here are some of the common famous Offshore Zones : Switzerland, Austria, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominica, British Virgin Islands, Isle of Man, Cyprus, Mauritius, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Cook Islands. These places are notoriously called ' Tax havens of the World ' because they offer significant tax benefits like no income taxes, no estate taxes, no capital gains, excellent interest rates for investments, direct access to stock markets. Switzerland is the undisputed leader in offshore. 

Nevertheless, privacy is a biggest attraction in these 'Tax Free Zones' of the world.

We make offshore bank account setup easy: Just a copy of your passport "legalized" or ID required.

Bank of Albania - Bank of Algeria - Bank of Argentina - Bank of Armenia - Bank of Aruba - Bank of Australia - Bank of Austrian - Bank of Azerbaijan - Bank of Bahamas - Bank of Bahrain - Bank of Bangladesh - Bank of Barbados - Bank of Belarus - Bank of Belgium - Bank of Belize - Bank of Bermuda - Bank of Bhutan - Bank of Benin - Bank of Bolivia - Bank of Bosnia - Bank of Botswana - Bank of Brazil - Bank of Bulgaria - Bank of Burkina Faso - Bank of Cameroon - Bank of  Canada - Bank of Cayman Islands - Bank of Central African Republic - Bank of Chad - Bank of Chile - Bank of China - Bank of Colombia - Bank of Congo -Bank of Costa Rica - Bank of Côte d'Ivoire - Bank of Croatia - Bank of Cuba - Bank of Cyprus - Bank of Czech Republic - Denmark - Bank of Dominican Republic - East Caribbean area - Ecuador - Egypt - El Salvador - Equatorial Guinea - Estonia - Ethiopia - European Union - Fiji - Finland - France - Gabon - Georgia -