South African banking system stable

Local banks remained stable in the face of Europe's debt woes and did not need the level of regulatory reform required elsewhere, SA Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said yesterday.

Gordhan said one challenge facing the G20 meeting was how to return to a co-ordinated effort in grappling with the crisis without undermining global economic growth. The meeting should, however, not prescribe a uniform formula for all countries.

"We believe that though there has to be co-ordination, there doesn't have to be uniformity. South Africa, with Canada, Australia and India to a point have a common belief that our banking systems and financial systems are secure," he said.

"We don't have to impose the same levels of capital liquidity and other forms of strictures on our banking and financial systems as the rest of the world has to." He said South Africa was "a bit concerned that the level of co-ordination initially at the G20 is not the level that we are seeing now".