Finger-pointing masks officials’ failures, says Sarb’s Marcus

South African Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus says knee-jerk reforms ignore failure of policymakers to raise standards before crisis; sober, measured approach to reform only credible way forward

Policymakers worldwide risk sowing the seeds for the next crisis if they rush to punish banks, Gill Marcus, the governor of the South African Reserve Bank, told CentralBanking.com in an interview in Basel on Saturday.

"There's no question that reform needs to take place. But it needs to be sensible, and not a knee-jerk reaction," Marcus said. Neither was it the case that the problems highlighted by the crisis, for example in banks' capital and liquidity ratios, were in any way new. "Take Basel