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The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) came into being on 14 January 1960 as Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority, when the Reserve Bank Act 1959 removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank.〔 The bank has the responsibility of providing services to the Government of Australia in addition to also providing services to other central banks and official institutions.〔 It currently consists of the Payments System Board, which governs the payments system policy of the bank, and the Reserve Bank Board, which governs all other monetary and banking policies of the bank.〔 Both boards consist of members of both the bank, the Treasury, other Australian government agencies, and leaders of other institutions that are part of the economy.〔〔 The structure of the Reserve Bank Board has remained consistent ever since 1951, with the exception of the change in the number of members of the board.〔 The governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia is appointed by the Treasurer and chairs both the Payment Systems and Reserve Bank Boards and when there are disagreements between both boards, the governor resolves them.〔〔 From the middle of the 19th century into the 1890s, the prospects of a national bank forming grew. In 1911, the Commonwealth Bank was established, but did not have the authority to print notes, which was a power that was still reserved to the Treasury. A movement toward reestablishing the gold standard occurred after World War I, with John Garvan leading various boards in contracting the money supply on the route to doing so, and the gold standard was instituted for both the British pound sterling and the Australian pound in 1925.〔 During the Great Depression, the Australian pound became devalued, no longer worth the pound sterling, and formally departed from the gold standard with the Commonwealth Bank Act of 1932.〔 Legislation in 1945 led to regulation of private banks which H.C. Coombs was opposed to, and when he became Governor in 1949, he gave them more overall control over their institutions.〔〔 When the monetary authorities implemented the advice of Coombs to have a flexible interest rate, it allowed the bank to rely more on open market operations.〔In 1980 the issue of short term government bonds - Treasury notes of 13 and 26 weeks duration changed from a tap system, in which the price was set, to a tender system in which the volume of stock was set and the price determined by the market. Soon afterwards the tender system was extended to the issue of longer term government bonds. The float of the Australian dollar happened in 1983, around the same period of time that the financial system in Australia was deregulated. Administration of the banks was transferred in 1998 from the bank to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Payments System Board was created, while the bank was given power within the said Board in the same year.〔 The current Governor of the Reserve Bank is Glenn Stevens, who has been the incumbent since 18 September 2006.〔 ==History (Mid 19th century–1924)== The proposition of a national bank in Australia began to be raised in the middle of the 19th century. This interest accelerated significantly in the 1890s due to an austere collapse of the financial and banking sectors at the beginning of that decade. The Australian Labor Party consequently formed during the same decade and proposed a bank should be formed, which would be a protected and cheap way of having financial services. The party designed a platform in 1908 for a "Commonwealth Bank", which would be a combination of both a commercial and central bank.〔 Regardless, Fisher's Labor government introduced legislation in 1911 for merely a government-owned commercial bank, without a complete central banking component. He stated that "Time and experience will show how its functions for usefulness may be extended (central banking )." The only function at the time that made the bank characteristic of a central one was that it was the banker to the Australian government, in addition to it being the same for the states. For the time being, the Treasury of Australia maintained the role of issuing bank notes through the Notes Act of 1910.〔 The Commonwealth Bank of Australia gradually developed into the central bank of Australia. In response to the disruption of trade during World War I (1914–1918) the Commonwealth Bank began to manage the debt of the Australian government. Nevertheless, at the end of the war, the bank continued to have a primary role as a savings and trading bank. World War I had caused the currency of Australia to move away from the gold standard, in order to fund a great increase of government spending, as did the United Kingdom and other parts of the British Empire. The value of the Australian pound remained tied to the pound sterling. Inflation in Australia thus increased, less than in Britain, but more than in the United States. The case for a central bank was increased by the need for the government to cut spending after the war to reduce its debt. Commonwealth Bank Governor Denison Miller had been arguing for the issue of Australian currency to be switched from the treasury to the bank, as it had more staff and more monetary knowledge.〔 〕 The Australian Notes Board (ANB) was created in 1920 and partially acceded to the request of Miller, in having four directors, with the governor of the bank being an ''ex officio'' member.〔 The ANB began to follow a policy of Board member John Garvan, in contracting the money supply, with the goal of reducing prices so that free convertibility of the Australian pound to gold could be re-established at pre-war rates, that is return to the former gold standard. This was accomplished by refusing the exchange of notes for gold and it was hoped that this would lower domestic prices and raise the exchange rate for the Australian pound. When gold arrived from New York, U.S.A the government sold securities in order to diminish the effect of monetary expansion, therefore executing the first open market operations in the history of Australia and thus the first attempt of central banking.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Reserve Bank of Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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