The Bank for International Settlements is paying out an extra dividend to its 63 central bank shareholders this year, after the rapid market recovery in 2020 generated large profits.

Net profits were SDR1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) in the 2020–21 financial year. The figure was the second-largest profit in the BIS’s history. The largest, of nearly SDR1.9 billion, came in 2010, as markets staged a rapid recovery from the global financial crisis. The BIS uses the special drawing right as its unit of