Central bank

Although officially state owned in most countries, the central bank is usually an autonomous entity responsible for the stability of the national currency (see also money) and the national financial system as a whole. Furthermore it implements the country's monetary policy, which may conflict with the government's fiscal measures. Other duties might include providing financial services to governments (eg. storing other countries' monetary reserves) and supervising of banking institutions (eg. in the case of mergers and acquisitions) in order to protect the consumers. A central bank is a privately held refinancing bank of last resort, thus a monetary monopoly. Advocates of central banking argue that a National bank, which is chartered by the government and carries out government-designated monetary policy, is too susceptible to political pressure, which may come from factions that are incompetent to make monetary policy. Hence the expression, "the independence of the Federal Reserve," the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank being an example of a Central, as opposed to National, bank. Central banks are often said to be more powerful than governments, although generally governments have some leverage over them. The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, for example, is appointed by the President of the U.S., and his choice must be confirmed by the Congress. Central banks of various nations often deliberate jointly on monetary policy, and the combined power of central bank leaders is extraordinary. The founder of Australia's Reserve Bank, H.C. "Nugget" Coombs, once bragged he belonged to the "international freemasonry of central bankers". Central banks are part of the infastructure used by the private banking community of a given country, to influence their country's economy. Central banks in different countries have a range of influence over exchange rates. Some exchange rates are managed, some are market based and many are somewhere in between. Typically a central bank seeks to impose centralised control over market prices such as the price of credit. This is called interest rate policy. Central banks influence interest rates through a policy lever called open market operations. \nThis article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by [:|action=edit}} expanding it].Category:Stub

Table of contents

1 List of central banks 2 See also 3 External link

List of central banks

\n*Australia - Reserve Bank of Australia\n*Canada - Bank of Canada\n*Cuba - Banco de Cuba\n*European Union - European Central Bank\n*Finland - Bank of Finland (*)\n*France - Banque de France (*)\n*Germany - Deutsche Bundesbank (*)\n*Greece - Bank of Greece (*)\n*Iceland - Seðlabanki Íslands\n*India - Reserve Bank of India\n*Israel - Bank of Israel\n*Italy - Banca d'Italia (*)\n*Japan - Bank of Japan\n*Malaysia - Bank Negara Malaysia\n*Mexico - Banco de México\n*The Netherlands - De Nederlandsche Bank (*)\n*New Zealand - Reserve Bank of New Zealand\n*Norway - Norges Bank\n*OECS - Eastern Caribbean Central Bank\n*People's Republic of China - People's Bank of China\n*Philippines - Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas\n*Poland - Narodowy Bank Polski\n*Republic of China (on Taiwan) - The Central Bank of China\n*Russia - Central Bank of the Russian Federation \n*Singapore - Monetary Authority of Singapore\n*South Africa - South African Reserve Bank\n*South Korea - The Bank of Korea\n*Spain - Banco de España (*)\n*Sweden - Sveriges Riksbank - The world's oldest central bank.\n*Thailand - Bank of Thailand\n*Turkey - Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Merkez Bankası\n*United Kingdom - Bank of England\n*United States of America - Federal Reserve System\n*Vatican City - Vatican Bank (*) members of the European Central Bank, together with the Central Banks of Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal. Also should be noted:\n*World Bank group - In a sense, the central investment bank of the world (long term loans).\n*International Monetary Fund - In a sense the provider of funds of last resort to countries short of liquidity (short term loans)\n*Bank for international Settlements - an international organisation which fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks. http://www.bis.org/index.htm

See also

\n*Macroeconomics\n*Currency board

External link

\n*Complete listing of central banks Category:Central banks