What city is home to the Bank for International Settlements? Basel is the headquarters city of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
The BIS was established in 1930 and is owned by member central banks. Its original role was connected to settling German reparations after World War I, but it later became a forum for central-bank cooperation and a provider of banking services to central banks and international organizations.
Basel is in northwestern Switzerland, near the borders with France and Germany. The BIS also has representative offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City, but those offices do not make either city its headquarters. The institution’s Basel location is also why several international banking rules are known as the Basel Accords.
A common mix-up is confusing the BIS with the Swiss National Bank, Switzerland’s own central bank, whose headquarters are in Bern and Zurich. The BIS is an international institution, not Switzerland’s national monetary authority.