Research on global financial stability: the use of BIS international financial statistics

Introduction

BIS statistics on international bank lending, collected by central banks under the auspices of the Euro-currency Standing Committee at the BIS since the late 1970s, have long been used to monitor risk exposures in the international financial system. For instance, these statistics provided clear and timely warnings about the scale and nature of external bank debt accumulation before almost all the crises to hit the emerging markets from the early 1980s. As international financial intermediation has evolved over the years, the scope of these statistics has been gradually broadened beyond bank lending to cover debt securities, syndicated credit facilities, and derivatives.

These statistics are being used increasingly in economic research on questions related to global financial stability. However, it had been clear to us for some time that different researchers using these statistics were not always aware of each other's work. The BIS's Committee on the Global Financial System (the successor to the Euro-currency Standing Committee) therefore decided to sponsor a workshop of research based on the BIS international financial statistics. This volume contains papers presented at the workshop.