Opportunities at South Africa's Reserve Bank
It's been a baptism of fire for Gill Marcus, the first woman to become Governor of South Africa's Reserve Bank (SARB). Days after taking over from the well-respected Tito Mboweni this week she had to preside over an MPC meeting and fend off insistent requests from the Unions for a rate cut.
The Bank decided to keep the key repo rate at 7%, but Unions' demands have succeeded to some extent: the mandate of the Central Bank will soon be officially reviewed, a process Marcus says she "welcomes". The idea is for SARB to add growth promotion and employment creation to its narrow inflation-targeting role.
Marcus, a former SARB deputy governor and chairwoman of ABSA Bank with strong ties to business but also to the political left, wants to emphasise continuity. Therefore there are likely to be no high-profile casualties of the Mboweni era and no job openings for prospective deputy directors or top managers: "The Governor has not indicated any intention to change the executive structure," says spokesman Brian Hoga. But lower down the scale there are many opportunities to join the team at SARB.
The Reserve Bank, like its counterparts the Fed and the ECB, has been busy recruiting staff. If the financial crisis has caused the employee count of many banks to shrink, the opposite has happened to central banks, faced with an expansion of their balance sheet and a need to manage new credit risks.
"The Reserve Bank is constantly recruiting in order to meet its strategic objectives," says Jenny Jeftha, head of human resources at SARB. "We recruit with our core business in mind, seeking the skills required for us to deliver on our mandate."
If the candidate gets through the interviews and the required psychometric tests, he or she will find that working for the Reserve Bank pays well. In his last year as Governor Mr Mboweni received a 14% pay rise to 4.3m Rand, while the year before the increase had been 28 per cent. At present the average annual pay rise for employees is 10 per cent.
Pay increases well above inflation are justified, argues Hans van der Merwe, a non-executive director: "It is important for the Bank to have the most competent staff to maintain standards necessary for this institution." The Bank, he says, has "no obligation" to keep pay increases within the 3 to 6% target range for inflation.
