Activities of BIS

It acts as a meeting hub for central banks. As of now, about 5000 senior executives and officials of various central banks and supervisory agencies participate in meetings organised by the BIS every year.

The BIS staff is the prime researcher who is aided by members of the academic community and visiting researchers from central banks. BIS organises seminars and workshops through its Financial Stability Institute (FSI). Through these, BIS facilitates dissemination of the work carried out by the supervisory community.

The BIS provides a wide range of financial services to help central banks and other financial institutions in the management of their foreign reserves. Around 140 customers, which include various international financial institutions, currently use these services.

The BIS does not have carry any legislative authority, but the norms laid down by it bind the participating bodies to implement its accords. It however gives some relaxation to local authorities on the way to implement its recommendations as the local laws vary from country to country. Managed Float A floating exchange rate is a system in which a government intervenes at some frequency to change the direction of the float by buying or selling currencies. Often, the local government makes this intervention, but this is not always the case. For example, in 1994, the American government bought large quantities of Mexican pesos to stop the rapid loss of the peso's value. Strictly speaking, even a central bank's intervention to raise or lower interest rates could be considered a managed float. However, because most floating currencies manage their regimes with occasional central bank involvement, the term applies mainly to frequent or dramatic interventions. A managed float is also known as a dirty float. See also: 1994 Mexican economic crisis, Floating currency, Fixed exchange rate. Central Bank Intervention

The practice in which a central bank buys and sells one or more currencies in order to affect the exchange rate of its own currency. To give a very simple example, if a central bank believes its own currency is overvalued it may sell that currency on the open market to increase supply. The extra supply will likely drive down the exchange rate to a lower level.