Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

Saturday, 15 August 2015 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General
Reading Time:  4 minutes

BIS 'Tower' building © --Wladyslaw Disk./cc-by-sa-3.0

BIS ‘Tower’ building © –Wladyslaw Disk./cc-by-sa-3.0

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international organization of central banks which “fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks”. 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 offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City.

The BIS was established on May 17, 1930, by an intergovernmental agreement by Germany, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, United States and Switzerland. The BIS was originally intended to facilitate reparations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. 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-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.

BIS 'Botta' building by Mario Botta © Julian Mendez BIS 'Tower' building © --Wladyslaw Disk./cc-by-sa-3.0 BIS members © Emilfaro BIS 'Tower' building © --Wladyslaw Disk./cc-by-sa-3.0
<
>
BIS 'Tower' building © --Wladyslaw Disk./cc-by-sa-3.0
The relatively narrow role the BIS plays today does not reflect its ambitions or historical role. A “well-designed financial safety net, supported by strong prudential regulation and supervision, effective laws that are enforced, and sound accounting and disclosure regimes“, are among the Bank’s goals. In fact they have been in its mandate since its founding in 1930 as a means to enforce the Treaty of Versailles. The BIS has historically had less power to enforce this “safety net” than it deems necessary. Recent head Andrew Crockett has bemoaned its inability to “hardwire the credit culture”, despite many specific attempts to address specific concerns such as the growth of offshore financial centres (OFCs), highly leveraged institutions (HLIs), large and complex financial institutions (LCFIs), deposit insurance, and especially the spread of money laundering and accounting scandals.

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 significant differences between United States, European Union, and United Nations officials 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 firmly 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.

Read more on Bank for International Settlements and Wikipedia Bank for International Settlements (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.


Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Lake Weißensee

Lake Weißensee

[caption id="attachment_153238" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Hans Holz/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Weissensee is a lake in the Austrian state of Carinthia within the Gailtal Alps mountain range. The highest situated Carinthian bathing lake shares its name with the municipality of Weissensee on the northern and southern shore. Due to its steep shore, the eastern part is almost uninhabited, with only a narrow path leading to the eastern end, where the area of the Stockenboi municipality reaches the la...

[ read more ]

Paris Observatory

Paris Observatory

[caption id="attachment_223398" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Fred Romero/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Paris Observatory (French: Observatoire de Paris), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its historic building is on the Left Bank of the Seine in central Paris, but most of the staff work on a satellite campus in Meudon, a suburb southwest of Paris. The Paris ...

[ read more ]

The Jacobite

The Jacobite

[caption id="attachment_234072" align="aligncenter" width="590"] The Jacobite crossing Glenfinnan Viaduct © Daniel Kraft/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Jacobite is a steam locomotive-hauled tourist train service that operates over part of the West Highland Line in Scotland. It has been operating under various names and with different operators every summer since 1984. It has played an important role in sustaining a scenic route. The Mallaig Extension of the West Highland Line opened in 1901 and was operated ...

[ read more ]

Turtle Bay in Manhattan

Turtle Bay in Manhattan

[caption id="attachment_226902" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Tudor City © flickr.com - Tony Hisgett/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Turtle Bay is a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends from roughly 43rd Street to 53rd Streets, and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River's western branch (facing Roosevelt Island). The neighborhood is the site of the headquarters of the United Nations and the Chrysler Building. The Tudor City apartment complex is to the south of Turtle ...

[ read more ]

The Prater in Vienna

The Prater in Vienna

[caption id="attachment_171641" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Prater und Stuwerviertel © flickr.com - flightlog/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district (Leopoldstadt). The Wurstelprater amusement park, often simply called "Prater", lies in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel. The area that makes up the modern Prater was first mentioned in 1162, when Emperor Friedrich I gave the land to a noble family called de Prato. The word "P...

[ read more ]

The Palace of Nations in Geneva

The Palace of Nations in Geneva

[caption id="attachment_168235" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Palace of Nations © flickr.com - Ville Oksanen/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Palace of Nations is the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva, located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was built between 1929 and 1938 to serve as the headquarters of the League of Nations. It has served as the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva since 1946 when the Secretary-General of the United Nations signed a Headquarters Agreement with the Swiss authorities, a...

[ read more ]

Ibbenbüren in Tecklenburger Land

Ibbenbüren in Tecklenburger Land

[caption id="attachment_160791" align="aligncenter" width="590"] City Center (Oberer Markt) © J.-H. Janßen[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ibbenbüren or Ibbenbueren is a medium-sized town in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on position 185 of the largest cities in Germany and the largest city in Tecklenburger Land. Ibbenbüren (Ibbenbueren) is situated on the Ibbenbürener Aa river, at the northwest end of the Teutoburger forest and rather exactly in the center of the two cities Rheine in the wes...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Corsica - Calvi

Theme Week Corsica - Calvi

[caption id="attachment_153845" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Pinède Beach © Pierre Bona[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Calvi is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. It is the seat of the Canton of Calvi, which contains Calvi and one other commune, Lumio. Calvi is also the capital of the Arrondissement of Calvi, which contains, besides the Canton of Calvi, three other cantons: L'Île-Rousse, Belgodère, and Calenzana. According to legend, Christopher Columbus supposedly came from Ca...

[ read more ]

Hall in Tyrol

Hall in Tyrol

[caption id="attachment_154216" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Upper City Square © Anna reg[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Hall in Tirol is a town in the Innsbruck-Land district of Tyrol, Austria. Located at an altitude of 574 m, about 5 km (3 mi) east of the state's capital Innsbruck in the Inn valley, it has a population of about 12,700. Hall in the County of Tyrol was first mentioned as a salina (saltern) near Thaur castle in a 1232 deed. The current name dates back to 1256, similar to Halle, Schwäbisch Hall or Hallsta...

[ read more ]

The mountain resort town Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The mountain resort town Garmisch-Partenkirchen

[caption id="attachment_151821" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Garmisch-Partenkirchen, with the mountains Alpspitze, Zugspitze and Daniel in the background © Octagon[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a mountain resort town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region, and the district is on the border with Austria. Nearby is Germany's highest mountain, Zugspitze, at 2961 m (9714 ft.). The George C. Marshall European Center f...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Palais de l'Isle © Edwin Lee
Annecy, between mountains and lakes

Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It lies on the northern...

Fisher Island © Alexf/cc-by-sa-3.0
Fisher Island off Miami

Fisher Island is a census-designated place of metropolitan Miami, located on a barrier island of the same name. As of...

Entrance to Pembroke Castle © geograph.org.uk - Robin Drayton/cc-by-sa-2.0
Pembroke in Wales

Pembroke (Welsh: Penfro) is an historic settlement and former county town of Pembrokeshire in West Wales. The town features a...

Schließen