Bank for International Settlements

(BIS) organization whose function is to promote cooperation between central banks and to facilitate international financial settlements; it is also a centre for economic and monetary research and has important trustee duties. Central banks of the main trading states are members, each providing a director to the board, which meets at least ten times a year. BIS is based in Basel, Switzerland.

It was established 1930 to handle German reparations settlements from World War I. Its place in the international financial world was greatly restricted by the Bretton Woods Conference 1944 and superseded by the International Monetary Fund. Its liaising role among central banks is its primary function today and the reason it has survived several attempts to terminate it.