A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the monetary base. Many central banks also have supervisory or regulatory powers to ensure the stability of commercial banks in their jurisdiction, to prevent bank runs, and in some cases also to enforce policies on financial consumer protection and against bank fraud, money laundering, or terrorism financing.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important central banks.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 190 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of last resort to national governments, and a leading supporter of exchange-rate stability. Its stated mission is "working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world." Established on December 27, 1945 at the Bretton Woods Conference, primarily according to the ideas of Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes, it started with 29 member countries and the goal of reconstructing the international monetary system after World War II. It now plays a central role in the management of balance of payments difficulties and international financial crises. Through a quota system, countries contribute funds to a pool from which countries can borrow if they experience balance of payments problems. As of 2016, the fund had SDR 477 billion.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution which is owned by member central banks. Its primary goal is to foster international monetary and financial cooperation while serving as a bank for central banks. With its establishment in 1929, its initial purpose was to oversee the settlement of World War I war reparations.
In macroeconomics, the money supply refers to the total volume of money held by the public at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money", but standard measures usually include currency in circulation and demand deposits. Money supply data is recorded and published, usually by the national statistical agency or the central bank of the country. Empirical money supply measures are usually named M1, M2, M3, etc., according to how wide a definition of money they embrace. The precise definitions vary from country to country, in part depending on national financial institutional traditions.
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II.
The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, and Australia among 44 other countries after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars to within 1% of fixed parity rates, with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks at US$35 per troy ounce of fine gold. It also envisioned greater cooperation among countries in order to prevent future competitive devaluations, and thus established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to monitor exchange rates and lend reserve currencies to nations with balance of payments deficits.
The Croatian National Bank, known until 1997 as the National Bank of Croatia, is the Croatian member of the Eurosystem and has been the monetary authority for Croatia from 1991 to 2022, issuing the Croatian dinar until 1994 and subsequently the Croatian kuna until Croatian adoption of the euro on 1 January 2023. It has also been Croatia's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision since 2020. It was initially established in 1972 under the decentralization of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, and became a fully-fledged central bank in late 1991 with the independence of Croatia.
John Brian Taylor is the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
The Bank of Lithuania is the Lithuanian member of the Eurosystem and has been the monetary authority for Lithuania from 1922 to 2014, issuing the Lithuanian litas, albeit with a long suspension between 1940 and 1993. Since 2014, it has also been Lithuania's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision.
The Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development, or The Group of 24 (G-24) was established in 1971 as a chapter of the Group of 77 in order to help coordinate the positions of developing countries on international monetary and development finance issues, as well as and to ensure that their interests are adequately represented in negotiations on international monetary matters. Though originally named after the number of founding Member States, it now has 28 Members. Although the G-24 officially has 28 member countries, any member of the G-77 can join discussions.
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
The international monetary and economic conferences were a series of gatherings held in the last third of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, culminating in the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944. The first four conferences in the 19th century focused on matters of coinage and the markets for gold and silver. After World War I, the scope of the conferences was expanded to matters of financial stability, then trade and economics more broadly; the two iterations in 1927 and 1933 were branded World Economic Conference. The latter of these, the London Economic Conference of 1933, ended in significant failure, and the formula of periodical international conferences was subsequently abandoned in favor of the permanent international financial institutions of the post-World War II order.
John C. Dugan is an American attorney who served as the 29th comptroller of the currency from August 2005 to August 14, 2010. He has since worked as the chairman of Citigroup.
The Central Bank of Montenegro is the central bank of Montenegro. Although Montenegro does not issue its own currency after it unilaterally adopted the euro in 2002, the stated mission of the central bank is to establish and maintain a sound banking system and monetary policy.
Mark Joseph Carney is a Canadian economist and banker who served as the governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. He currently serves as chairman, and head of Impact Investing at Brookfield Asset Management since 2020, and was named chairman of Bloomberg Inc., parent company of Bloomberg L.P., in 2023. He was the chair of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018. Prior to his governorships, Carney worked at Goldman Sachs as well as the Department of Finance Canada.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It was established in the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh Summit as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF). The Board includes all G20 major economies, FSF members, and the European Commission. Hosted and funded by the Bank for International Settlements, the board is based in Basel, Switzerland, and is established as a not-for-profit association under Swiss law.
Yaseen Anwar is a Pakistani-American banker who had been the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan from 20 October 2011 to 31 January 2014. He previously also acted as deputy governor and has 33 years of experience in international banking. Anwar holds a dual Pakistan and US citizenship. He is a graduate of the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Parliamentary Network on the World Bank & International Monetary Fund is an independent inter-parliamentary organization aiming to increase transparency and accountability in international financial institutions., notably the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It consists of over a thousand legislators from 158 World Bank Group and IMF member countries.
Fabio Panetta is an Italian economist who has been serving as Governor of the Bank of Italy since 2023. He previously served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2020 until 2023. Prior to his ECB appointment, Panetta served as Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy and concurrently as President of the Institute for the Supervision of Insurance (IVASS) from May to December 2019.
