You know banks like Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc. You read about the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), even if you're not quite sure what they do (not to worry--they're a little confused, too). And you're probably aware that the Federal Reserve is neither federal nor a reserve, but a consortium of privately owned banks. Chances are, though, that you've never even heard of what is arguably the most powerful financial institution on earth, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). 

The BIS is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It was founded in 1929, for the purpose of overseeing reparation payments owed by Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. It's been with us ever since, and its mission has, to put it mildly, grown a bit. 

A banker's bank, the BIS does no direct business with individuals, governments, or corporate entities. Instead, it deals solely with member nations' central banks (most of which are privately owned). There are 55 of them at present, and the list includes every central bank of consequence in the world. 

All members are owners and have voting privileges, in proportion to the number of shares they have. (Private citizen ownership was originally allowed, and comprised about 14% of shares outstanding, but in 2001 all of those were bought out by the central banks.) We were unable to pin down the exact present share structure, but it can be assumed that the founding members have the most clout. 

The founders were the central banks of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K., all of which got an identical number of shares. The U.S. Federal Reserve was not an original shareholder; however, three American banks (J. P. Morgan, First Bank of New York, First Bank of Chicago) each got the same number, giving the U.S. three times the voting power from the outset. More here  http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/what_we_now_know/archive/2006...