• The Global Transparency Resource
• Importance of Transparency
• IFI's Introduced
  • AfDB - African Development Bank
  • ADB - Asian Development Bank
  • BIS - Bank for International Settlements
  • BSTDB - Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
  • CDB - Caribbean Development Bank
  • CEB - Council of Europe Development Bank
  • EBRD - European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  • ECB - European Central Bank
  • EIB - European Investment Bank
  • IADB - Inter-American Development Bank
  • IFC - International Finance Corporation
  • IMF - International Monetary Fund
  • IsDB - Islamic Development Bank
  • OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • WB - World Bank
  • WTO - World Trade Organisation

BIS Bank for International Settlements (Basel, Switzerland)

The Bank for international Settlements has had an interesting history. It got its start in order to make it easier for Germany to make its reparations payments after the First World War. After World War 2 it was nearly disbanded as it no longer had a purpose. However it has now reinvented itself as a central bank for the world's central bankers. It also plays an important part in helping member nations to coordinate monetary policy.

The main purpose of the Bank for International Settlements is to make the monetary policy of its member nations more transparent and therefore more predictable. The main goal is to avoid wild fluctuations in exchange rates. The member countries obviously set their own monetary policy however what one country does will affect what happens in other countries. This is mainly because the central bank of each country will set a level that they want their currency to trade at. In order to achieve this level they will have to intervene in their own economy to get the money to this level. If the other member countries coordinate their activities it will cause some currencies to experience a rapid increase or decrease in value. This tends to cost all of the countries involved a lot of money so it something that is best avoided. Therefore the Bank of International Settlements helps to coordinate these activities.

The Band of International Settlements also helps to make sure that the monetary policy of its members is realistic. A lot of countries would like to see the value of their currency somewhere different than it is. However in many cases the economic realities make this impossible. The Bank of International Settlements helps to make sure that all countries are pursuing realistic goals and not trying to devalue their currency for example. They do this mainly by making the actions of the various central banks transparent so that all of the other countries can see what they are doing.

In recent years the Bank of International Settlements has played an increasingly important role in coordinating banking policy between member nations. As the global economy has become more and more integrated it has become increasingly obvious that having different banking rules in every country is not all that practical. Therefore the bank is now a place where the member nations can work together to coordinate the rules. Obviously there are still differences in the rules from country to country but at least it is now relatively straightforward for banks in different countries to do business with each other.

The Bank for International Settlements also does play a role as a bank although it only performs these services for the central banks of its member nations. The main role is to allow central banks to exchange currency but it also holds deposits on behalf of its members and will issue loans to central banks if necessary.