Masaaki Shirakawa appointed Chair of the BIS Asian Consultative Council

The Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today announced the appointment of Masaaki Shirakawa as Chair of the BIS Asian Consultative Council (ACC). Mr Shirakawa is Governor of the Bank of Japan.

Mr Shirakawa's appointment is for a term of two years from October 2010. He succeeds Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, as ACC Chair. Dr Zeti chaired the Council from October 2008 to September 2010. The BIS Board and ACC Governors expressed their gratitude to Dr Zeti for her leadership during her time as Chair.

The ACC comprises the Governors of the BIS member central banks in the Asia-Pacific region.¹ It was established in 2001 to facilitate communication between these central banks and the BIS Board and Management on matters of interest to the Asian central banking community. The BIS Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific in Hong Kong SAR provides the Secretariat for the ACC.

¹ The BIS member central banks represented in the ACC are those of Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.