International central bank cooperation: New historical perspectives

One of the most important measures to counter the devastating effects of the 2008 crisis was intensive international central bank cooperation. Major central banks acted as liquidity guarantors by creating various types of credit swap arrangements. Many contemporary observers have seen this as a ‘new’ type of cooperation between central banks, not only in terms of its scope but also its nature. But central banks have always operated at the intersection of the national and the international (Eichengreen, 1984, 1996; Flandreau 1997; James 2013). In history, the provision of services such as clearing, and hence short-term credit through drawing rights, lending or/and rediscounting, was in many cases part of the daily routine of central banks. Even in strict exchange rate regimes such as the classical gold standard, various types of foreign assets, also held abroad, were important instruments for central banks to act as shock absorbers for the national economy (Ugolini, 2012, 2017; Bazot, Monnet & Morys 2022). In the Scandinavian Monetary Union (SMU), these daily clearing arrangements between central banks served to maintain liquidity and smoothen the effects of international capital flows (Ögren & Trautwein 2022). 

This workshop gather researchers working on international central bank cooperation, both formal and more informal through clearing and other operations, both in day-to-day operations and in times of crisis. The workshop will be hybrid with in-person and online, and the working language will be English. It also is the preparatory workshop to the World Economic History Conference session on “International central bank cooperation”

Organisers :

Vincent Bignon Banque de France, Anders Ögren Université d’Uppsala et Hans-Michael Trautwein Université d’Oldenburg.

Program :

Tuesday 11 March 2025 

Wednesday 12 March 2025