This volume, edited by Robert C. Effros, surveys developments at international financial institutions, regional developments affecting central banks, the progress of the European Union countries toward monetary union and a unified banking market, the effect of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization on banking services, and the implications of the North American Free Trade Agreement for central banks. Other topics discussed include banking regulation and reform in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, countries of the former Soviet Union, and China; banking supervision; the role of deposit insurance; bankruptcy policy; derivatives; securitization; payments systems; securities transfers; and capital standards for market risk. Appendices reproduce relevant legal documentation.

This paper analyzes the legal foundations of central bank digital currency (CBDC) under central bank and monetary law. Absent strong legal foundations, the issuance of CBDC poses legal, financial and reputational risks for central banks. While the appropriate design of the legal framework will up to a degree depend on the design features of the CBDC, some general conclusions can be made. First, most central bank laws do not currently authorize the issuance of CBDC to the general public. Second, from a monetary law perspective, it is not evident that “currency” status can be attributed to CBDC. While the central bank law issue can be solved through rather straithforward law reform, the monetary law issue poses fundmental legal policy challenges.

This volume, edited by Robert C. Effros, focuses on how technology is affecting the world of banking and finance in an era of increasing globalization. The advent of electronic money, stored value cards, and internet transactions are discussed, as well as the impact of technology on cross-border banking and its implications for central banks. Other issues examined are the legal and regulatory frameworks for risk management of banks, sovereign debt, the international laws of bank secrecy, and financial services within the context of the GATT Agreement on Trade Services.

Volume III, edited by Robert C. Effros, contains the collected views of banking and legal experts, gathered at the third IMF-sponsored seminar of central banks general counsels. Matters of both international and domestic concern are addressed. The contributors analyze topics covering developments in international financial institutions; the progress of the European Union toward monetary union and a unified banking and securities market; the economic reform of Latin America; the resolution of the debt crisis; and banking regulations and reform in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

"The book contains a collection of articles on the European Union and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), the Eurosystem, monetary law, central bank independence and central bank statutes as well as on financial law. The authors are current or former members of the Legal Committee of the ESCB (LEGCO). This book commemorates ten years of work by the Working Group of Legal Experts of the European Monetary Institute and by the LEGCO. It is dedicated to Mr Paolo Zamboni Garavelli, former Head of the Legal Department at the Banca d'Italia and member of LEGCO, who died in 2004."--Editor.

This paper discusses key legal issues in the design of Board Oversight in central banks. Central banks are complex and sophisticated organizations that are challenging to manage. While most economic literature focuses on decision-making in the context of monetary policy formulation, this paper focuses on the Board oversight of central banks—a central feature of sound governance. This form of oversight is the decision-making responsibility through which an internal body of the central bank—the Oversight Board—ensures that the central bank is well-managed. First, the paper will contextualize the role of Board oversight into the broader legal structure for central bank governance by considering this form of oversight as one of the core decision-making responsibilities of central banks. Secondly, the paper will focus on a number of important legal design issues for Board Oversight, by contrasting the current practices of the IMF membership’s 174 central banks with staff’s advisory practice developed over the past 50 years.

Provides an in-depth overview of the Federal Reserve System, including information about monetary policy and the economy, the Federal Reserve in the international sphere, supervision and regulation, consumer and community affairs and services offered by Reserve Banks. Contains several appendixes, including a brief explanation of Federal Reserve regulations, a glossary of terms, and a list of additional publications.

This report by the Central Bank Governance Group presents information intended to help decision-makers set up governance arrangements that are most suitable for their own circumstances. The report draws on a large body of information on the design and operation of central banks that the BIS has brought together since it initiated work on central bank governance in the early 1990s. The need to deal with chronic inflation in the 1970s and 1980s prompted the identification of price stability as a formal central bank objective and led to a significant reworking of governance arrangements. The current global financial crisis could have equally important implications for central banks, particularly with respect to their role in fostering financial stability. Although it is too early to know how central banking will change as a result, the report takes an important first step in identifying governance questions that the crisis poses.

Adolph illustrates the policy differences between central banks run by former bankers relative to those run by bureaucrats.