Bank for International Settlements

From MarketsWiki

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) ^[1] is an international organization fostering the cooperation of central banks and international financial institutions. Established in 1930, it is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and has two representative offices: one in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and one in Mexico City.

Contents 1 BIS Mandates 2 BIS Statistics 3 Central Bank Web Sites 4 References

BIS Mandates

• A forum to promote discussion and policy analysis among central banks and within the international financial community
• A center for economic and monetary research
• A prime counterparty for central banks in their financial transactions
• An agent or trustee in connection with international financial operations

BIS Statistics

Given its connection between central banks and financial institutions globally, BIS statistics provide a thorough overview - and drilldown - into a number of areas of particular interest to financial institutions globally. These include data on:

• Cross-border lending and borrowing of internationally active banks in key financial centers, including offshore centers (banking statistics) Locational banking statistics

• Issuing activity in international and domestic securities markets (securities statistics) Securities statistics and syndicated loans

• Operations in over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange-traded derivatives markets (derivatives statistics)Semiannual OTC derivatives statistics

• Effective exchange rate (EER) indices for 52 economies (effective exchange rates) BIS Effective Exchange Rate indices

• Operations in the global foreign exchange markets (foreign exchange statistics) Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity in 2007 – Final results

• External debt positions of individual countries based on BIS banking and securities statistics, as well as on data from other international organizations (external debt statistics) Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank statistics on external debt

• Payment and settlement systems in major financial centres (payment statistics) Payment Systems

• The International Association of Insurance Supervisors, which operates from the BIS, publishes data on the global reinsurance market.

Central Bank Web Sites

Not surprisingly, BIS lists Web sites for all Central Banks.

References

1. ↑ "Bank for International Settlements”. BIS. Retrieved on January 31, 2008.