Glossary term
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
The Bank for International Settlements is an international institution that supports central banks and financial stability cooperation.
Updated
Read time
What Is the Bank for International Settlements?
The Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, is an international institution that supports central banks and promotes cooperation on monetary and financial stability. It is often described as a bank for central banks because it provides a forum, research, data, and certain banking services to monetary authorities.
The BIS does not set U.S. interest rates, supervise ordinary consumer bank accounts, or operate like a commercial bank. Its influence comes from convening central banks, producing analysis, and hosting committees that shape global banking and payment-system standards.
Key Takeaways
- The BIS supports central-bank cooperation and financial stability work.
- It is based in Basel, Switzerland, and serves central banks and monetary authorities.
- BIS-hosted groups are important in bank-capital, payments, market infrastructure, and financial-stability policy discussions.
- The BIS is not a retail bank and does not directly serve households or businesses.
What the BIS Does
The BIS provides research, statistics, policy forums, and banking services for central banks. Its publications are widely read by economists, policymakers, financial institutions, and market analysts because they track global credit, banking, liquidity, foreign exchange, and financial-system risks.
The institution also hosts groups such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures. Those groups do not replace national law, but their standards often influence how countries design bank regulation and market-infrastructure rules.
Where the BIS Fits
Institution | Primary Role |
|---|---|
BIS | Central-bank cooperation, research, statistics, and financial-stability forums. |
Federal Reserve | U.S. central bank responsible for monetary policy, supervision, payments, and financial stability. |
IMF | International monetary cooperation, surveillance, lending, and balance-of-payments support. |
World Bank | Development finance and poverty-reduction programs. |
Financial-Market Context
BIS work can affect banks and markets indirectly. Capital standards, liquidity rules, payment-system principles, and central-bank research can influence bank balance sheets, market plumbing, and risk management. Those effects usually arrive through national regulators rather than directly from the BIS.
BIS data and speeches can be useful context for global credit cycles, foreign exchange funding, bank leverage, and systemic risk. They are not trading signals by themselves.
The Bottom Line
The Bank for International Settlements is a central-bank institution focused on cooperation, research, and financial stability. It matters because many global banking and market-infrastructure standards begin in forums the BIS supports, even though implementation happens through national authorities.