The multilateral institutions

Founded in 1930 in Basel to coordinate reparations payments after the First World War, the BIS evolved into the meeting place and back-office for central banks. It hosts the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (which produces the Basel Accords governing bank capital and liquidity globally), the Committee on the Global Financial System, and several other standard-setting bodies. The BIS also publishes some of the most valuable data on cross-border banking flows, credit cycles, and global financial stability.

Created at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, the IMF is the lender of last resort to nations facing balance-of-payments crises. Its 190+ member countries contribute to a pool of resources that the Fund deploys with policy conditions attached — the basis for its often-controversial "structural adjustment" reputation. Beyond lending, the IMF conducts annual Article IV surveillance of every member economy, publishes the World Economic Outlook twice yearly, and houses some of the world's deepest cross-country economic databases.

The other Bretton Woods institution, originally established to finance European postwar reconstruction and now focused on long-term development lending to lower- and middle-income countries. The "World Bank Group" actually contains several distinct institutions (IBRD, IDA, IFC, MIGA, ICSID) with different mandates. Beyond its lending operations the Bank publishes the World Development Indicators — the most-used cross-country economic database in the world, available free through a public API.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development brings together 38 mostly high-income countries to coordinate policy across taxation, education, labor markets, financial regulation, and dozens of other fields. Successor to the OEEC (which administered postwar Marshall Plan aid), the OECD is best known for its policy reviews, the PISA education assessments, and its tax-policy work — including the 2021 global minimum corporate tax agreement that committed 140+ countries to a 15% floor on multinational taxation.

Created at the April 2009 G20 London summit in direct response to the global financial crisis, the FSB coordinates national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies (Basel Committee, IOSCO, IAIS) to develop and promote effective financial regulation. It produces the annual list of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) that are subject to higher capital requirements. Headquartered at the BIS in Basel, the FSB has no enforcement power of its own — it works by peer pressure and consensus among national regulators.