Bank of Korea Governor Hyun Song Shin has been appointed as a director of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), often referred to as the "central bank of central banks."
The BOK said Thursday that Shin was elected as a director at the regular BIS Board of Directors meeting held at the BIS headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, on Wednesday. His three-year term began Wednesday and is renewable.
The BIS has central banks and monetary authorities from 63 countries worldwide as members. The BIS Board of Directors is the effective top decision-making body that sets the BIS's strategy and oversees the work of its executives. The board consists of 18 members in total: six ex-officio directors (governors of the six founding member countries), one appointed director (the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York), and 11 elected directors. Elected directors are chosen from among the governors of general member countries by a two-thirds majority vote of the board.
Previous BOK governors Lee Ju-yeol and Rhee Chang-yong also served as BIS directors from 2019 to 2022 and from 2022 to 2026, respectively.
Before becoming BOK governor, Shin worked at the BIS for 12 years, serving as head of research and head of the monetary and economic department.
"Shin's appointment as a BIS director can be seen as a result reflecting the BOK's contributions to the BIS Governors' Meeting and discussions on key international financial issues, as well as Shin's international standing," a BOK official said.
