Deposit insurance design and bank regulation in South Africa

Abstract

Explicit deposit insurance is a safety net that bank regulatory authorities use to attempt to prevent and mitigate the costs of bank failures. International experience has shown however that explicit deposit insurance can increase the risk‐taking behaviour of banks. In this paper the authors briefly explore the policy lessons and the implications of the relationship between deposit insurance design and bank system stability, relate this to a possible proposal for explicit deposit insurance design in South Africa and describe aspects of the proposed South African Deposit Insurance Scheme (SADIS).