Madam Chair, hon Minister Trevor Manuel, hon colleagues, I am a supporter of the adage, ``Words are like leaves. Where they most abound, very little fruit is found.'' I therefore wish to make a fruitful contribution to this debate by being very brief.
The Bill contains a number of technical amendments dealing with issues that relate to definitions of liquid assets, reserve funds, confidentiality of the diligence audits, curatorship, limiting large exposures, banks as parts of groups, etc. Clause 5, for instance, amends section 2 of the principal Act, Act No 94 of 1990, giving permission to a bank and banking institution to use or refer to itself by a name other than the name under which it is registered.
The Bill also increases the minimum amount required to start a bank from R50 million to R250 million. This increase was necessitated by, among other things, inflationary growth since 1994, when the relevant amount was increased from R10 million to R50 million by section 45 of the Banks Amendment Act, Act No 26 of 1994. I am looking for part of my speech. Sorry. [Laughter.] I have now got it. The expansion of banks' areas of activity, inter alia, increased trading and financial instruments with the resultant additional risks, also contributed to the need for this increase. A third factor necessitating the change was the fact of increased international competition, requiring increased capital provisioning to enable South African banks to remain competitive. [Interjections.]