Category: Banks. Country: Chile.
The profound political and economic structural changes that have occurred since the Central Bank was created, both in Chile and abroad, have tended to support the greater and more effective autonomy of the Central Bank, particularly in recent years. The need for an autonomous central bank is based on the stability inherent in monetary and foreign exchange policies that are more independent of political cycles. These policies must take into consideration both the general orientation of economic policy and the mechanisms most suited to coordinating and exchanging information with the authorities involved in the executive branch of government. In this context, Article 97 of Chapter XII of the current Constitution of Chile granted the autonomous Central Bank constitutional rank. At the same time, this law defined it as a body with its own equity, of a technical nature, whose composition, organization, functions and attributes should be determined through a basic constitutional law of its own.Nonetheless, legislators also established a constitutional rule, contained in Article 98 of the Constitution, that this institution could only carry out operations with public and private financial bodies. The Central Bank cannot guarantee nor acquire documents issued by the State, its bodies or companies. Nor can it adopt agreements that involve discrimination or the establishment of rules and requirements that differentiate among persons, institutions or bodies carrying out operations of the same nature, nor can it directly or indirectly finance any public expenditure or loan, except in the case of external war or danger thereof, which must be so qualified by the National Security Council.
Address: Agustinas 1180, Casilla 967, Santiago de Chile, Phone: 562 6702000 Fax: 562 6984847
