Does a centralized system of direct controls necessarily provide the most effective method of control? A case study of the postwar Yugoslav banking system raises serious doubts on this score. The Yugoslav National Bank has not lost any control and may even have established a firmer control over the country's monetary system since 1954. At that time, it moved closer to the traditional central bank role of exercising indirect control over independent banks instead of performing all its functions through its own branches, over which it had direct control.