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The Review of International Organizations
Erschienen in: The Review of International Organizations 4/2009

01.12.2009

Are international organizations like the Bank for International Settlements unable to die?

A historical case study of the BIS

verfasst von: Peter Bernholz

Erschienen in: The Review of International Organizations | Ausgabe 4/2009

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Abstract

International Organizations seem to be immortal or at least long-lived. In this paper several factors which may be responsible for this fact are put forward and then analyzed by studying the empirical case of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which has now survived for seventy-eight years all threats to its existence. This is the more surprising since it was heavily attacked by the government of the most powerful country of the world, the USA for some years. This country demanded the dissolution of the BIS at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 as a precondition for allowing nations to join the planned International Monetary Fund. Before this the Bank was also able to master the crisis resulting from the demise of the gold (exchange) standard and the end of the German reparation payments agreed on in the Dawes and Young Plans, both consequences of the Great Depression. The Bank even survived the events of the Second World War threatening it, and reacted creatively to the crisis posed by the founding of the European Monetary Union. It is shown that all suspected factors favoring the survival of international organizations were present in the case of the BIS.
Vorheriger Artikel Political-economic problems in trade capacity building
Nächster Artikel Boards of directors in international organizations: A framework for understanding the dilemmas of institutional design

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Fußnoten
1
Bosshard (1944), my translation from the German as of all later documents of the SNB.
 
2
Minutes of the meetings of the Directorate of the Swiss National Bank No. 829, pp.923–924, July 27, 1944.
 
3
Minutes of the Bankausschuss, August 31/September 1, 1944, pp. 287–289.
 
4
Personal remark to the author in Summer 2007.
 
5
Toniolo (2005), p. 39. Toniolo provides a detailed discussion of these events and of the creation of the BIS.
 
6
Toniolo (2005), p. 30.
 
7
Sachverständigenausschuss (1929).
 
8
Minutes of the Directorate of the Swiss National Bank [subsequently just “Minutes”], Nos. 903, p.1078, of October 26/27 1939 and 91, p. 108 of 5/6 February 1942.
 
9
Minutes, No. 18, January 12, 1940.
 
10
Minutes of the Bankausschuss SNB, August 31/September 1, pp. 288.
 
11
Minutes, Nos. 892, July 24/25 and 1017, August 15, 1946. The Directorate of the SNB had advised the BIS not to do so, presumably because it wanted to prevent a precedent which might hurt the Bank. See also Toniolo (2005), p. 278.
 
12
Minutes, No. 817, June 19, 1947.
 
13
Toniolo (2005), p. 299.
 
14
Kaplan and Schleiminger (1989), p. 24.
 
15
Kaplan and Schleiminger (1989), pp. 38, 41 and 45. It is interesting that the Swiss delegation was instructed to support those countries who wanted to design the BIS and not a new institution to handle the payments system. Bernholz (2007), p.137.
 
16
Minutes, No. 272, March 16, 1950, p. 356.
 
17
Minutes, No. 618, May 8, 1947.
 
18
Minutes, No. 1604, December 11, 1947, pp. 2285–86.
 
19
Minutes, No. 777, July 12, 1951, p. 884.
 
20
Reprinted in Toniolo (2005), p. 638.
 
21
BIS: Monthly Reports for ends of years.
 
22
Toniolo (2005), p. 540 f., note 130.
 
23
BIS (1934), p. 47.
 
24
For a fuller description see Toniolo (2005), PP. 185–189.
 
25
Auboin (1955), p. 14.
 
26
Quoted from Toniolo (2005), p. 194. The short sketch of these activities of the BIS is mainly based on Toniolo, pp. 191–195.
 
27
Minutes, No. 18, 12.1.1940.
 
28
This paragraph is based on Toniolo (2005), pp. 213 f.
 
29
Toniolo (2005), pp. 224–229.
 
30
Minutes of the Bankausschuss of the SNB, No. 14, October 1, 1942,
 
31
Minutes of the Bankausschuss of the SNB, No. 15, October 29, 1942.
 
32
Auboin (1955), p.14.
 
33
Auboin (1955), p. 16.
 
34
Toniolo (2005), p. 248.
 
35
Auboin (1955), p. 16.
 
36
D’Aroma (1980), p. 6., my translation from the French.
 
37
Iklé, Max (Undated, after 1979): Erinnerungen. Zweiter Teil: Aus dem Berufsleben. Archive of the SNB, pp. 254 f.
 
38
Toniolo (2005), p. 359.
 
39
Minutes No. 513, June 13, 1974.
 
40
Minutes No. 1249, December 5, 1974.
 
41
Bernholz (1999), pp.737–788. See also Toniolo (2005), pp. 437–452.
 
42
BIS (2006), pp. 213 and 215.
 
43
BIS (1999).
 
44
See also the volume presenting the papers of a conference at the occasion of this anniversary: Borio et al. (eds.) (2008).
 
45
For a detailed description of the astonishing range of the BIS’s activities see Bernholz (2000).
 
Literatur
Auboin, R. (1955). The Bank for International Settlements, 1930–1955. Princeton Essays No. 22. International Finance Section, Department of Economics and Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.
Bericht des Sachverständigenausschusses. (1929). vom 7. Juni 1929, deutsche und englische Fassung (Young Committee). Berlin: Druckerei der Reichsbank.
Bernholz, P. (1999). The Bundesbank and the Process of European Monetary Integration. In Deutsche Bundesbank (Ed.), Fifty Years of the Deutsche Mark (pp. 731–789). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bernholz, P. (2000). The Bank for International Settlements: Which Activities Can Be Justified from a Normative Economic Perspective. In: International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, Allan H. Meltzer, Chairman (A Commision Advising and Reporting to the U.S. Congress): Expert Papers, March. Reprinted in: Chen, John-ren (ed.) (2003): The Role of International Institutions in Globalisation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 140–165.
Bernholz, P. (2007). The Swiss National Bank from 1945 to 1982. In Schweizerische Nationalbank (Ed.), The Swiss National Bank 1907–2007 (pp. 109–195). Zürich: Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
Borio et al. (eds.) (2008). Past and Future of Central Bank Cooperation. Basel, BIS.
Bosshard, W. (1944). Bericht über die Finanz- und Währungskonferenz von Bretton Woods, N. H., 1.–23. Juli, 1944, August 8. Manuscript, confidential and not for publication. Transmitted by the Swiss envoy in Washington to the responsible Swiss Minister.Bundesarchiv Bern, EPD, Zentralregistratur Schachtel E 2001(D) 3/499, Dossier B.65.60.1.30, Conterence de Bretton Woods – Generalités.
D’Aroma, A. (1980). La Banque des Règlements Internationaux au cours des vingt dernières années. Souvénirs et expériences. Société Royale d’Economie Politique de Belgique, No. 420, Janvier 1980, Place du Trone, 1, 1000 Bruxelles, Sécretariat Général, Place du Trone, 1, 1000 Bruxelles.
Ikle, M. (Undated, after 1979). Erinnerungen. Zweiter Teil: Aus dem Berufsleben. Archive of the Swiss National Bank.
Kaplan, J. J., & Schleiminger, G. (1989). The European Payments Union. Financial Diplomacy in the 1950s. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Swiss National Bank, Zürich Archive: Minutes of the Directorate, the Bankausschuss and the Bankrat of the SNB.
Toniolo, G., with the assistance of Clement, Piet (2005). Central Bank Cooperation at the Bank for International Settlements, 1930–1973. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Metadaten
Titel
Are international organizations like the Bank for International Settlements unable to die?
A historical case study of the BIS
verfasst von
Peter Bernholz
Publikationsdatum
01.12.2009
Verlag
Springer US
Erschienen in
The Review of International Organizations / Ausgabe 4/2009
Print ISSN: 1559-7431
Elektronische ISSN: 1559-744X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-009-9062-9

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