Bank for International Settlements

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS; French:

Banque des rglements internationaux, BRI) is an
international organization of central banks which fosters international monetary and nancial cooperation and
serves as a bank for central banks".[2] The BIS carries
out its work through subcommittees, the secretariats it
hosts and through an annual general meeting of all member banks. It also provides banking services, but only to
central banks and other international organizations. It is
based in Basel, Switzerland, with representative oces in
Hong Kong and Mexico City.

Baden in November, and its charter was adopted at a second Hague Conference on January 20, 1930. According
to the charter, shares in the bank could be held by individuals and non-governmental entities. The BIS was
constituted as having corporate existence in Switzerland
on the basis of an agreement with Switzerland acting as
headquarters state for the bank. It also enjoyed immunity
in all the contracting states.
The evidence had been mounting throughout the war that
the BIS had helped the Germans loot assets from occupied countries, including gold rings and other items from
labor and prison camp victims. [6] The most notorious incident was the Bank of Englands transfer to the BIS gold
looted by the Nazis after their invasion of Czechoslovakia
in 1939.'[7] The fact that top level German industrialists
and advisors sat on the BIS board is ample evidence to
understand how the BIS was used by Hitler throughout
the war, with the help of American, British and French
banks. Between 1933 and 1945 the BIS board of directors included Walther Funk, a prominent Nazi ocial,
and Emil Puhl, as well as Hermann Schmitz, the director
of IG Farben and Baron von Schroeder, the owner of the
J.H. Stein Bank.

History

The Bretton Woods Conference recommended the liquidation of the Bank for International Settlements at the
earliest possible moment.[8] This resulted in the BIS
being the subject of a disagreement between the nongovernmental U.S. and British delegations. The liquidation of the bank was supported by other European delegates, as well as the United States (including Harry Dexter White, Secretary of the Treasury, and Henry Morgenthau),[8] but opposed by John Maynard Keynes, head of
the British delegation.
Fearing that the BIS would be dissolved by President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Keynes went to Morgenthau
hoping to prevent the dissolution, or have it postponed,
BIS main building in Basel, Switzerland
but the next day the dissolution of the BIS was approved.
However, the liquidation of the bank was never actuThe BIS was established on May 17, 1930, by an inter- ally undertaken.[9] In April 1945, the new U.S. president
governmental agreement by Germany, Belgium, France, Harry S. Truman and the British government suspended
the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the United States and the dissolution, and the decision to liquidate the BIS was
Switzerland.[3][4]
ocially reversed in 1948.[10]
The BIS was originally intended to facilitate reparations
imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles after
World War I.[5] The need to establish a dedicated institution for this purpose was suggested in 1929 by the Young
Committee, and was agreed to in August of that year at
a conference at The Hague. A charter for the bank was
drafted at the International Bankers Conference at Baden-

The BIS was originally owned by both governments and

private individuals, since the United States and France
had decided to sell some of their shares to private investors. BIS shares traded on stock markets, which made
the bank an unusual organization: an international organization (in the technical sense of public international

3 TIER 1 VERSUS TOTAL CAPITAL

law), yet allowed for private shareholders. Many central

banks had similarly started as such private institutions;
for example, the Bank of England was privately owned
until 1946. In more recent years the BIS has bought
back its once publicly traded shares.[11] It is now wholly
owned by BIS members (central banks) but still operates in the private market as a counterparty, asset manager and lender for central banks and international nancial institutions.[12] Prots from its transactions are used,
among other things, to fund the banks other international
activities.

Organization of central banks

As an organization of central banks, the BIS seeks to

make monetary policy more predictable and transparent
among its 60-member central banks, except in the case of
Eurozone countries which forfeited the right to conduct
monetary policy in order to implement the euro. While
monetary policy is determined by most sovereign nations,
it is subject to central and private banking scrutiny and
potentially to speculation that aects foreign exchange
rates and especially the fate of export economies. Failures to keep monetary policy in line with reality and make
monetary reforms in time, preferably as a simultaneous
policy among all 60 member banks and also involving
the International Monetary Fund, have historically led to
losses in the billions as banks try to maintain a policy using open market methods that have proven to be based on
unrealistic assumptions.
Central banks do not unilaterally set rates, rather they
set goals and intervene using their massive nancial resources and regulatory powers to achieve monetary targets they set. One reason to coordinate policy closely is
to ensure that this does not become too expensive and that
opportunities for private arbitrage exploiting shifts in policy or dierence in policy, are rare and quickly removed.

tween central banks, as speculative lending based on inadequate underlying capital and widely varying liability
rules causes economic crises as bad money drives out
good (Greshams Law).

2.2 Encourages reserve transparency

Reserve policy is also important, especially to consumers
and the domestic economy. To ensure liquidity and
limit liability to the larger economy, banks cannot create
money in specic industries or regions without limit. To
make bank depositing and borrowing safer for customers
and reduce risk of bank runs, banks are required to set
aside or reserve.
Reserve policy is harder to standardize as it depends on
local conditions and is often ne-tuned to make industryspecic or region-specic changes, especially within large
developing nations. For instance, the Peoples Bank of
China requires urban banks to hold 7% reserves while
letting rural banks continue to hold only 6%, and simultaneously telling all banks that reserve requirements on
certain overheated industries would rise sharply or penalties would be laid if investments in them did not stop completely. The PBoC is thus unusual in acting as a national
bank, focused on the country not on the currency, but
its desire to control asset ination is increasingly shared
among BIS members who fear "bubbles", and among exporting countries that nd it dicult to manage the diverse requirements of the domestic economy, especially
rural agriculture, and an export economy, especially in
manufactured goods.
Eectively, the PBoC sets dierent reserve levels for domestic and export styles of development. Historically,
the United States also did this, by dividing federal monetary management into nine regions, in which the lessdeveloped western United States had looser policies.

For various reasons it has become quite dicult to acTwo aspects of monetary policy have proven to be par- curately assess reserves on more than simple loan instruticularly sensitive, and the BIS therefore has two specic ments, and this plus the regional dierences has tended
goals: to regulate capital adequacy and make reserve re- to discourage standardizing any reserve rules at the global
BIS scale. Historically, the BIS did set some standards
quirements transparent.
which favoured lending money to private landowners (at
about 5 to 1) and for-prot corporations (at about 2 to
1) over loans to individuals. These distinctions reect2.1 Regulates capital adequacy
ing classical economics were superseded by policies relyCapital adequacy policy applies to equity and capital as- ing on undierentiated market valuesmore in line with
sets. These can be overvalued in many circumstances be- neoclassical economics.
cause they do not always reect current market conditions
or adequately assess the risk of every trading position.
Accordingly, the BIS requires the capital/asset ratio of 3 Tier 1 versus total capital
central banks to be above a prescribed minimum international standard, for the protection of all central banks The BIS sets requirements on two categories of capital,
involved.
tier 1 capital and total capital. Tier 1 capital is the book
The BISs main role is in setting capital adequacy re- value of its stock plus retained earnings. Tier 2 capital is
quirements. From an international point of view, ensur- loan-loss reserves plus subordinated debt. Total capital is
ing capital adequacy is the most important problem be- the sum of Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital. Tier 1 capital must

3
be at least 4% of total risk-weighted assets. Total capital
must be at least 8% of total risk-weighted assets. When
a bank creates a deposit to fund a loan, its assets and liabilities increase equally, with no increase in equity. That
causes its capital ratio to drop. Thus the capital requirement limits the total amount of credit that a bank may
issue. It is important to note that the capital requirement
applies to assets while the bank reserve requirement applies to liabilities.[13]

Goal: a nancial safety net

6 Accounting and use of SDRs

Since 2004, the BIS has published its accounts in terms of
special drawing rights (SDRs). As of 31 March 2013, the
Fiscal Year Report of the bank had total assets of SDR
211,952.4 million. One SDR is equivalent to the sum of
USD 0.660, EUR 0.423, JPY 12.1 and GBP 0.111. Included in that total is 404 tonnes (890,658 pounds) of ne
gold. Until 2003, the Bank for International Settlements
used as currency the Gold Franc.

7 Members

Sixty member central banks or monetary authorities of

The relatively narrow role the BIS plays today does not these countries:
reect its ambitions or historical role.
A well-designed nancial safety net, supported by strong
8 Leadership
prudential regulation and supervision, eective laws
that are enforced, and sound accounting and disclosure
regimes", are among the Banks goals. In fact they have 8.1 Chairman of the board and president
been in its mandate since its founding in 1930 as a means
* President and chairman.
to enforce the Treaty of Versailles.
** None.
The BIS has historically had less power to enforce this
*** Position abolished on 27 June 2005.
safety net than it deems necessary. Recent head
Andrew Crockett has bemoaned its inability to hardwire
the credit culture, despite many specic attempts to ad- 8.2 Vice-chairmen
dress specic concerns such as the growth of oshore
nancial centres (OFCs), highly leveraged institutions
8.3 General managers
(HLIs), large and complex nancial institutions (LCFIs),
deposit insurance, and especially the spread of money
8.4 Board of directors
laundering and accounting scandals.
stephen ingvesh Norway (Chairman of the Board of
Directors)

Role in banking supervision

The BIS provides the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision with its 17-member secretariat, and with it has
played a central role in establishing the Basel Capital Accords of 1988 and 2004. There remain signicant differences between United States, European Union, and
United Nations ocials regarding the degree of capital
adequacy and reserve controls that global banking now
requires. Put extremely simply, the United States, as of
2006, favoured strong strict central controls in the spirit
of the original 1988 accords, while the EU was more inclined to a distributed system managed collectively with
a committee able to approve some exceptions.
The UN agencies, especially ICLEI, are rmly committed
to fundamental risk measures: the so-called triple bottom
line and were becoming critical of central banking as an
institutional structure for ignoring fundamental risks in
favour of technical risk management.

Masaaki Shirakawa, Tokyo

Janet Yellen, Washington, D.C.
Stephen S Poloz, Ottawa
Agustn Carstens, Mexico City
Luc Coene, Brussels
Andreas Dombret, Frankfurt am Main
Mario Draghi, Frankfurt am Main
William Dudley, New York
Stefan Ingves, Stockholm
Thomas Jordan, Zurich
Mark Carney, London
Klaas Knot, Amsterdam
Anne Le Lorier, Paris

11
Guy Quaden, Brussels
Fabrizio Saccomanni, Rome
Ignazio Visco, Rome
Jens Weidmann, Frankfurt am Main
Zhou Xiaochuan, Beijing

See also
Bank regulation
Basel III
Continuous linked settlement
Financial Stability Board
Global nancial system
International Court of Justice
League of Nations
Gold Franc

10

References

[1] Board of Directors. www.bis.org/. Archived from the

original on 22 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
[2] About BIS. Web page of Bank for International Settlements . Archived from the original on 14 May 2008.
Retrieved May 17, 2008.
[3] http://treaties.un.org/Pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=
0800000280167c31
[4] http://www.bis.org/about/index.htm?l=2
[5] BIS History - Overview. BIS website. Retrieved 201102-13.
[6] http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/banking-with-hitler/
[7] http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/
43fa3cdc-f934-11e2-86e1-00144feabdc0.html#
axzz3e6RLZ4n8
[8] United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, Final
Act (London et al., 1944), Article IV.
[9] Raymond Frech Mikesell. The Bretton Woods Debates: A
Memoir. Princeton: International Finance Section, Dept.
of Economics, Princeton University. p. 42. ISBN 088165-099-4. Retrieved 8 July 2013. Essays in International Finance 192
[10] brief history of the BIS
[11] http://www.bis.org/press/p050601.htm
[12] http://www.bis.org/banking/finserv.htm
[13] Liu, Henry C. K. China: PART 4: China steady on the
peg
[14] BIS

EXTERNAL LINKS

11 External links
BIS website
Global Banking: The Bank For International Settlements An analysis of the origins and functions of the
BIS.
The Money Club By Edward Jay Epstein, Harpers,
1983.
Andrew Crockett statement to the IMF.
An account of the use of reserve policy and other
central bank powers in China at the Wayback Machine (archived February 4, 2012) By Henry C K
Liu in the Asia Times.
Banking with Hitler on YouTube, Timewatch, Paul
Elston, producer Laurence Rees, narrator Sean Barrett (UK), BBC, 1998 (A video documentary about
the BIS role in nancing Nazi Germany)
Bank for International Settlements in the Dodis
database of the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland

12
12.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Bank for International Settlements Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_for_International_Settlements?oldid=669725140 Contributors: AxelBoldt, Youssefsan, SJK, Olivier, Edward, Mic, Paul A, Mprudhom, Ellywa, Guaka, Gestumblindi, Mirv, Sheridan, Kent
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Images

File:Flag_of_Poland.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Flag_of_Poland.svg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

File:Flag_of_Portugal.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Flag_of_Portugal.svg License: Public domain Contributors: http://jorgesampaio.arquivo.presidencia.pt/pt/republica/simbolos/bandeiras/index.html#imgs Original artist: Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro (1910; generic design); Vtor Lus Rodrigues; Antnio Martins-Tuvlkin (2004; this specic vector set: see sources)
File:Flag_of_Romania.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Flag_of_Romania.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: AdiJapan
File:Flag_of_Russia.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Flag_of_Russia.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Flag_of_Saudi_Arabia.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Flag_of_Saudi_Arabia.svg License:
CC0 Contributors: the actual ag Original artist: Unknown
File:Flag_of_Serbia.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Flag_of_Serbia.svg License: Public domain
Contributors: From http://www.parlament.gov.rs/content/cir/o_skupstini/simboli/simboli.asp. Original artist: sodipodi.com
File:Flag_of_Singapore.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Flag_of_Singapore.svg License: Public domain Contributors: The drawing was based from http://app.www.sg/who/42/National-Flag.aspx. Colors from the book: (2001). The
National Symbols Kit. Singapore: Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. pp. 5. ISBN 8880968010 Pantone 032 shade from
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/colorfinder.aspx?c_id=13050 Original artist: Various
File:Flag_of_Slovakia.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Flag_of_Slovakia.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work; here, colors Original artist: SKopp
File:Flag_of_Slovenia.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Flag_of_Slovenia.svg License: Public domain
Contributors: Own work construction sheet from http://flagspot.net/flags/si%27.html#coa Original artist: User:Achim1999
File:Flag_of_South_Africa.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Flag_of_South_Africa.svg License:
Public domain Contributors: Per specications in the Constitution of South Africa, Schedule 1 - National ag Original artist: Flag design by Frederick Brownell, image by Wikimedia Commons users
File:Flag_of_South_Korea.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Flag_of_South_Korea.svg License:
Public domain Contributors: Ordinance Act of the Law concerning the National Flag of the Republic of Korea, Construction and color
guidelines (Russian/English) This site is not exist now.(2012.06.05) Original artist: Various
File:Flag_of_Spain.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Flag_of_Spain.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Original
artist: ?
File:Flag_of_Sweden.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Flag_of_Sweden.svg License: PD Contributors: ?
Original artist: ?
File:Flag_of_Switzerland.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Flag_of_Switzerland.svg License: Public
domain Contributors: PDF Colors Construction sheet Original artist: User:Marc Mongenet
Credits:
File:Flag_of_Thailand.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Flag_of_Thailand.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Zscout370
File:Flag_of_Turkey.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg License: Public domain
Contributors: Turkish Flag Law (Trk Bayra Kanunu), Law nr. 2893 of 22 September 1983. Text (in Turkish) at the website of the
Turkish Historical Society (Trk Tarih Kurumu) Original artist: David Benbennick (original author)
File:Flag_of_the_Czech_Republic.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Flag_of_the_Czech_Republic.
svg License: Public domain Contributors:
-x-'s le
-x-'s code
Zirlands codes of colors
Original artist:
(of code): SVG version by cs:-x-.
File:Flag_of_the_Netherlands.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Flag_of_the_Netherlands.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Zscout370
File:Flag_of_the_People{}s_Republic_of_China.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Flag_of_the_
People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, http://www.protocol.gov.hk/flags/eng/n_flag/
design.html Original artist: Drawn by User:SKopp, redrawn by User:Denelson83 and User:Zscout370
File:Flag_of_the_Philippines.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Flag_of_the_Philippines.svg License: Public domain Contributors: The design was taken from [1] and the colors were also taken from a Government website Original
artist: User:Achim1999
File:Flag_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Flag_of_the_United_
Arab_Emirates.svg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Flag_of_the_United_States.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg License:
PD Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

12

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0

Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg License:
CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:
Wiki_letter_w.svg Original artist: Wiki_letter_w.svg: Jarkko Piiroinen

12.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0