The mission of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is to serve central banks in their pursuit of monetary and financial stability, to foster international cooperation in those areas and to act as a bank for central banks.
In the light of the Bank’s mission, this chapter reviews the activities of the BIS, and of the groups it hosts, for the financial year 2012/13; describes the institutional framework that supports the work of those groups; and presents the year’s financial results. In broad outline, the BIS pursues its mission by:
- promoting discussion and facilitating collaboration among central banks;
- supporting dialogue with other authorities that are responsible for promoting financial stability;
- conducting research on policy issues confronting central banks and financial supervisory authorities;
- acting as a prime counterparty for central banks in their financial transactions; and
- serving as an agent or trustee in connection with international financial operations.
The BIS promotes international cooperation among monetary authorities and financial supervisory officials through its meetings programmes and through the Basel Process – hosting international committees and standard-setting bodies and facilitating their interaction in an efficient and cost-effective way.
In particular, the BIS hosts the Financial Stability Board (FSB). The BIS supports the FSB’s objectives, which are to coordinate at the international level the work of national authorities and international standard setters to strengthen the financial sector; and to work with international institutions to address threats to global financial stability.
The BIS research and statistics function helps meet the needs of monetary and supervisory authorities for data and policy insight. The BIS banking function provides prime counterparty, agent and trustee services appropriate to the BIS mission.