By Nathaniel Allison
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV
“Politicians? Useless. Central bankers have better judgment.” — Fritz Leutwiler, President of the BIS from 1982–1984
Welcome to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), one of the world’s most exclusive clubs. It’s a posse of central bankers from Britain, Germany, France, Italy Switzerland, Japan, and Belgium. Their financial fortress, a 20-floor tower, is located in Basel, Switzerland – just on the edge of France and Germany. The air is so pure you can smell the freshly printed banknotes. This crisp, capitalist breeze pairs nicely with the faint whiff of tax loopholes. This small tower produces a river of riches for the world. It’s also an ideal location for quick getaways when the taxman comes a’knocking. This is a bank for the elite, where you can move mountains of money without anyone noticing.
The BIS has been in operation since 1930. It’s a bank that is above nations. It acts as its own sovereign entity – and has ironclad diplomatic immunity. Its founding document declared them untouchable and immune from expropriation, seizure, or any meddling in peace or war. A bank originally sold as a means to foster peace thru finance, but was actually a tool for financial manipulation. By 1931, the BIS was quickly becoming a financial juggernaut. It posted profits in its first year, swelled its shareholder ranks from seven to twenty-three. The organization’s modus operandi is power and profit; its dealings are cloaked in secrecy. It’s sold as peace through finance. Sure, if your definition includes tanks and warfare. Absurdity can sometimes masquerade as salvation. While the banks like the IMF and World Bank play nice in the spotlight, the BIS lurks more in the shadows.
The BIS’s real genius was its ability to play the ultimate insider trading game. It held gold and convertible currency deposits for central banks, maintaining accounts that let it shuffle funds between nations without ever lifting a gold bar. During WWII, the Nazis forced Czechoslovakia’s central bank, under literal death threats, to transfer 23.1 metric tons of gold through the BIS to German accounts at the Bank of England. Britain’s Chancellor tried to freeze the assets, but the BIS just waved its “sovereign” card and let the heist roll. It was like a financial Ocean’s Eleven, except the house pulled the robbery. The BIS does indeed seem to have a lot in common with the fictional James Bond terrorist organization, SPECTRE. At the least, they’re a sovereign racket meant to manipulate global finance; a corporate cartel in pinstripe suits.
The Bank of International Settlements was packaged as a noble referee for global finance; able to distribute reparations and initiate cooperation between nations. In reality? It was a gilded clubhouse for the financial elite, keeping the reparations racket alive. BIS is the VIP lounge of global finance, with members consisting of 63 central banks. Critics call it an unaccountable overlord; fans say it keeps the financial world spinning. Forged in the fires of post-war turmoil, the BIS became a global financial powerhouse, its influence rooted in the turbulence of the era. As the author Adam LeBor has described in Tower of Basel: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World, this organization is akin to the Tower of Babel.
The Conspiracy nuts like to swear that money magic rules the world. They say the BIS has off-the-books accounts, and confiscated Nazis gold. That they use the loot to buy gold-backed bearer bonds, turning the gold-bullion into trillions. No need to bother with traceable wire transfers when you can stuff diplomatic pouches full of cash – forget about any digital breadcrumbs. The Conspiracy theorists like to say this money has funded things like secret fusion labs in Argentina and the reverse-engineering of Nazi UFOs from Roswell, Nevada. But who needs aliens when you’ve got central bankers running the show?
PROFITABLE CHAOS
In 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles officially ended World War I, it required Germany to pay the Allies reparations. The Bank for International Settlements was established to oversee those German reparations. It was something the average German viewed as a political weapon. These crushing war reparation demands triggered chaos, and the economy spiraled into hyperinflation.
Enter the “old wizard” Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank – central bank of Germany. Schacht was a financial alchemist who turned debt into power. In 1923, he conjured the rentenmark – a currency that was tethered to land and dirt, not gold. Temporarily halting the chaos, and in-turn earning global acclaim. He was famous for saying “Our money’s as good as the ground you stand on.” Only for the money to collapse so not even a wheelbarrow of it would buy you a newspaper.
Hjalmar Schacht not only tackled the collapse of the Reichsmark, but also Germany’s pressing war reparations. He collaborated with Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England. They implemented strategies to stabilize the economy. It was during this period, that private currency speculators exploited the Reichsmark’s rapid devaluation, amassing huge profits and hoarding foreign reserves. Traditional central banking tools, like raising interest rates, were useless. Norman and Schacht’s vision ignited a quiet revolution in global finance.
Raising rates couldn’t deter speculators when the currency’s value plummeted so fast. Schacht decided to attack the root of the problem: the supply of funds. Schacht ordered the Reichsbank to halt all credit to businesses. This action defied all conventional central banking rules. It was likely the first time in economic history that a central bank took such a drastic step to combat currency speculation. By cutting off credit, Schacht curbed the speculators’ ability to operate, paving the way for the Reichsmark’s stabilization. Schacht’s intervention, combined with the Dawes Plan—which restructured Germany’s war reparations—played a crucial role in ending hyperinflation and restoring economic order. The 1924 Dawes Plan slashed Germany’s burden with loans, but the tensions simmered. By 1929, the Young Plan refined the fix, and birthed the BIS in 1930.
In 1930, Reichsbank official, and Schacht protegee, Karl Blessing pushed to infiltrate the BIS and sabotage reparations from within. By 1931, Germany’s political chaos – driven by Nazi and Communist gains – sparked an economic meltdown, and the BIS failed to stabilize the crisis. In 1932, the Lausanne conference axed reparations, even though the loan debts still lingered. During Hitler’s 1933 rise, he reinstated Hjalmar Schacht as Reichsbank president and BIS board member. Who then exploited the bank for Nazi aims. In 1934, Schacht’s debt moratorium stunned global creditors, signaling Germany’s financial rebellion. By 1935, insider trading scandals rocked the BIS, exposing its ethical flaws.
The Dawes Plan was a financial shell game – a Ponzi scheme with better branding. American bankers loaned Germany cash to pay the Allies, who then paid America back. The world applauded, especially the bankers pocketing fees. The Young Plan helped Germany export its way out of debt, building factories in poor countries with borrowed Allied money. It was genius if you were a German industrialist, less so if you’re anybody else. Hjalmar Schacht was largely responsible for strengthening ties between the Nazis and German industrialists. By World War II, the BIS was laundering Nazi gold looted from occupied nations, showing that “cooperation” was just a fancy word for profit. During the Roman Empire, Cicero said war runs on infinite money; today it’s transnational cash flow
A CLUB FOR WORLD-DOMINATION ENTHUSIASTS
A bank meant to stop war instead fueled Nazi resilience, linking German high finance with sympathetic American players and Wall Street tycoons. Peace was never the point – profit and power were. The BIS was backed by J.P. Morgan and First National City Bank, who helped funnel Anglo-American funds to Hitler. Montagu Norman authorized the transfer of Czech gold to the Nazis in 1939, bolstering their war effort. Schacht was tied to Wall Street and Nazi financier Kurt von Schröder, who led the Freundeskreis, a pro-Hitler lobbying group. Schröder’s banking empire and Hamburg-Amerika Line smuggled Nazi agents and funds. Allen and John Foster Dulles, of Sullivan and Cromwell, represented IG Farben and coordinated US-German trade, cementing the Fraternity’s role in Nazi ascendance.
This group, dubbed “the Fraternity” by Charles Higham – author of Trading with the Enemy: An Exposé of the Nazi-American Money Plot, 1933-1949 – included the Warburgs, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, Chase Bank, General Motors, Shell, Ford, etc; who all funneled funds to the Nazis. Key players of this group were tied to Yale’s Skull and Bones “the Brotherhood of Death” and the Thule Society. Skull and Bones was dominated by elite families like Bush, Harriman, and Rockefeller, who all backed Hitler’s rise. Bones members controlled firms like J.P. Morgan and Brown Brothers Harriman.
Averell Harriman and George Herbert Walker, both Bonesmen, founded W.A. Harriman & Co., channeling US funds to German firms. Prescott Bush, another Bonesman, managed Union Banking Corporation (UBC), a Nazi front. Investigations under the Trading with the Enemy Act confirmed UBC’s role in supporting Hitler, alongside Brown Brothers Harriman. Prescott Bush also oversaw Hamburg-Amerika Line, a cover for IG Farben’s Nazi espionage. IG Farben, merged in 1925, was pivotal to Germany’s war machine, producing Zyklon B and leveraging slave labor. It partnered with Standard Oil, led by the Warburgs until 1937.
The BIS had no reason to exist post-1945 – when German reparations ended, but it survived by wartime Nazi gold deals. The organization slowly morphed in Europe’s unelected kingpin – brokering loans and manipulating currencies. The BIS thrived during the Cold War, helping to bridge the East and West – though not much interaction with the Soviet Union and East Germany. It played a significant role in integrating West Germany into the global financial system after World War II. The BIS continued managing gold reserves, and monetary cooperation throughout Europe. Focusing on financial stability and supporting economic growth. After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, the BIS provided banking services that ensured stability in global markets during this economic transition. It was involved in Mexico’s $80 billion debt bomb in the 1980’s. Brazil, Argentina, and Yugoslavia got similar debt saves. The BIS became a crisis fixer. The BIS didn’t just endure, it helped build the euro. IThe Tower of Basel stands, a secretive giant, quietly steering Europe’s fate.
BABEL’S DIGITAL BANKERS
“Let’s build a tower to the heavens and make a name for ourselves…”
— Genesis 11:3, The Tower of Babel
The Bank for International Settlements isn’t scraping the sky, but it’s a financial colossus all the same. At 73, this Basel-based enigma is the world’s most exclusive club: 60 central banks, 600 staff, and profits that’d make a tycoon sweat. In 2012, it banked $1.17 billion—tax-free—on just 140 clients. Equity? $28 billion. All from two small offices in Mexico City and Hong Kong. No matter who’s goose-stepping or liberating, the bankers always cash out. From Nazi gold to EU euros, it continues to act as the puppet master’s piggy bank, continuing to cash-in as the world spins.
As of recently, the Bank for International Settlements – along with the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England – have become interested in use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and tokenized asset development. In July of 2023 they even spearheaded a seven-point plan to help countries around the world be more capable of preventing increasing cyberhacks with the development of new national digital currencies.
Through initiatives like Project Agora, they will explore how tokenization can enhance cross-border payments of both central and commercial bank money. The project is a collaborative effort led by the BIS Innovation Hub and several central banks. Seeking to utilize ledger technology to facilitate real-time, peer-to-peer cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions using CBDCs. A 2023 BIS survey on the projected landscape of CDBCs with the advance of digitization, speaks of the importance of maintaining “the role of central bank money amidst the rapid digitization and emergence of privately issued monies.”
The BIS is clearly putting themselves in a position to be a leader in shaping the future of digital money.
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