IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/b/bis/bisbps/146.html
   My bibliography  Save this book

Central bank capital and trust in money: lessons from history for the digital age

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Bell
  • Jon Frost
  • Boris Hofmann
  • Damiano Sandri
  • Hyun Song Shin

Abstract

Historically, central banks have at times operated successfully with negative equity. This indicates that a negative equity position of the central bank can be fully consistent with preserving trust in money. In addition, there is no evidence of any systematic relationship between the equity position of central banks and their ability to meet their monetary policy objectives. However, the case of the Bank of Amsterdam in the late 1700s, and the emerging market crises of the 1980s and 1990s, provide cautionary tales on the importance of fiscal backing in upholding trust in money. The pivotal economic determinant behind the trust in money is the portfolio decisions of private holders of central bank money. In particular, there are potential "tipping points" when they abandon existing forms of money in favor of alternatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Bell & Jon Frost & Boris Hofmann & Damiano Sandri & Hyun Song Shin, 2024. "Central bank capital and trust in money: lessons from history for the digital age," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 146.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:bisbps:146
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/bppdf/bispap146.pdf
    File Function: Full PDF document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/bppdf/bispap146.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isabel Schnabel & Hyun Song Shin, 2004. "Liquidity and Contagion: The Crisis of 1763," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(6), pages 929-968, December.
    2. Thomas Sargent & Noah Williams & Tao Zha, 2009. "The Conquest of South American Inflation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(2), pages 211-256, April.
    3. Sims, Christopher A, 1994. "A Simple Model for Study of the Determination of the Price Level and the Interaction of Monetary and Fiscal Policy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 4(3), pages 381-399.
    4. Raphael Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2022. "The pandemic, cash and retail payment behaviour: insights from the future of payments database," BIS Working Papers 1055, Bank for International Settlements.
    5. Del Negro, Marco & Sims, Christopher A., 2015. "When does a central bank׳s balance sheet require fiscal support?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-19.
    6. Stephen Quinn & William Roberds, 2016. "Death of a Reserve Currency," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(4), pages 63-103, December.
    7. Erik Feyen & Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Harish Natarajan & Matthew Saal, 2021. "Fintech and the digital transformation of financial services: implications for market structure and public policy," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 117.
    8. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2011. "From Financial Crash to Debt Crisis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1676-1706, August.
    9. Bindseil, Ulrich & Manzanares, Andrés & Weller, Benedict, 2004. "The role of central bank capital revisited," Working Paper Series 392, European Central Bank.
    10. Garreth Rule, 2015. "Understanding the central bank balance sheet," Handbooks, Centre for Central Banking Studies, Bank of England, number 32, April.
    11. Mr. Peter Stella, 1997. "Do Central Banks Need Capital?," IMF Working Papers 1997/083, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Ricardo Reis, 2015. "Different Types of Central Bank Insolvency and the Central Role of Seignorage," NBER Working Papers 21226, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Dirk Broeders & Paul Wessels, 2022. "On the capitalisation of central banks," Occasional Studies 2004, DNB.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierpaolo Benigno & Salvatore Nisticò, 2020. "Non-neutrality of Open-Market Operations," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 175-226, July.
    2. Jakob Korbinian Eberl, 2016. "The Collateral Framework of the Eurosystem and Its Fiscal Implications," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 69, March.
    3. Atsushi Tanaka, 2021. "Central Bank Capital and Credibility: A Literature Survey," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(2), pages 249-262, June.
    4. Stephen F. Quinn & William Roberds, 2017. "An Early Experiment with \"Permazero\"," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2017-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    5. Atsushi Tanaka, 2020. "Central Bank Capital and Credibility: A Literature Survey," Discussion Paper Series 208, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised May 2020.
    6. Stephen Quinn & William Roberds, 2016. "Death of a Reserve Currency," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(4), pages 63-103, December.
    7. Atsushi Tanaka, 2019. "How Can a Central Bank Exit Quantitative Easing Without Rapidly Shrinking its Balance Sheet?," Discussion Paper Series 196, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University.
    8. Bindseil, Ulrich & Marrazzo, Marco & Sauer, Stephan, 2024. "The impact of central bank digital currency on central bank profitability, risk-taking and capital," Occasional Paper Series 360, European Central Bank.
    9. van Holle, Frederiek, 2017. "Essays in empirical finance and monetary policy," Other publications TiSEM 30d11a4b-7bc9-4c81-ad24-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Jörg Bibow, 2018. "Unconventional monetary policies and central bank profits," IMK Studies 62-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    11. Monetary Affairs Department, 2023. "Central Bank Finances and Monetary Policy Conduct," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 23-12-12, Bank of Japan.
    12. Jarociński, Marek & Maćkowiak, Bartosz, 2018. "Monetary-fiscal interactions and the euro area's malaise," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 251-266.
    13. Wilko Bolt & Jon Frost & Hyun Song Shin & Peter Wierts, 2024. "The Bank of Amsterdam and the Limits of Fiat Money," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(12), pages 3919-3941.
    14. Nyborg, Kjell G., 2017. "Central bank collateral frameworks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 198-214.
    15. Pierpaolo Benigno, 2020. "A Central Bank Theory of Price Level Determination," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 258-283, July.
    16. Atsushi Tanaka, 2020. "Monetary Base Controllability after an Exit from Quantitative Easing," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 9(3), pages 123-134.
    17. Patrick K O'Brien & Nuno Palma, 2020. "Danger to the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street? The Bank Restriction Act and the regime shift to paper money, 1797–1821," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 24(2), pages 390-426.
    18. Nyborg, Kjell G., 2017. "Reprint of: Central bank collateral frameworks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 232-248.
    19. Christophe Blot & Jérôme Creel & Paul Hubert, 2016. "Rooms for extension of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03459414, HAL.
    20. Reis, Ricardo, 2016. "Funding quantitative easing to target inflation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67883, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bis:bisbps:146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Martin Fessler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bisssch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.