History of the BIS

The records of the BIS are organised in seven groups, largely reflecting the BIS's organisational structure:

• Organisation and Management of the BIS 
• Banking 
• Monetary and Economic Department
• Accounting and loans
• Establishment - building, security, HR policies, IT systems etc (this record group is not open to the public)
• Finance and economics
• History

The record groups consist largely of various types of correspondence, internal communication and reports. Important collections include files on:

• Reparations Office: secretariat files and a documentation library originating from the Berlin Reparations Office (Agent General for Reparations Parker Gilbert). These files were taken over by the BIS upon the dissolution of the Reparations Office in 1930. They document the administration of reparations during the 1920s, a function taken over by the BIS and performed until the suspension of reparations by the Lausanne Agreement (1932).
• The administration of international loans issued in connection with the Dawes and Young Plans (Dawes and Young Loans).
• The operation of the European Payments Union and the European Monetary Agreement from the late 1940s onward.
• International credit facilities in the granting of which the BIS has been involved.
• Expert meetings and conferences organised by the BIS or in which the BIS participated.
• Papers of senior managers and of the first Presidents, as well as microfilms of a selection of T H McKittrick's papers from the Baker Library, Harvard University.
• Banking customer files, documenting the banking policy between the BIS and its institutional counterparties (central banks and international organisations).