Bank for International Settlements

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) [1] was established in 1930 to deal with the reparation payments imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. Nowadays it serves as the central banks’ bank and provides a forum to promote discussion and policy analysis among central bank governors and senior executives. It has five standing committees: the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Committee on the Global Financial System, the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, the Markets Committee and the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics.

Although not binding upon its members, the BIS Basel Accords of 1988 and 2004, (known as Basel I and Basel II) are the standards for banking supervision that have been adopted by central bank in developed countries worldwide.