Owned by 63 central banks: the world's oldest international financial institution

Background

The Bank for International Settlements is the bank for central banks. Established in 1930, it is owned by 63 central banks, representing countries from around the world that together account for about 95% of world GDP, and it calls itself the world's oldest international financial institution. Its mission is to support central banks' pursuit of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation and to act as a bank for central banks. To do that it provides them with a forum for dialogue and broad international cooperation, a platform for responsible innovation and knowledge-sharing, in-depth analysis and insights on core policy issues, and banking services. It has been headquartered in Basel, Switzerland since 1930 and currently has two main buildings in the city, the Tower headquarters among them, with representative offices for the Americas and for Asia and the Pacific. The cooperation it hosts is known as the Basel Process: the standard-setting committees that meet at the Bank, together with its research and statistics, are the channel through which central banks and financial supervisory authorities work out common positions.