The latest BIS report on bank loans to Potugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain is not bullish for shareholders of the German, French, British, Dutch and Spanish banks.

FORBES: PIIGS Owe Over $2 Trillion to U.S. and European Banks

This echoes the complaints of Austrian bankers in 2008, who said the BIS figures on their exposure to eastern Europe exaggerated the true risk and panicked the markets unnecessarily.

ECONOMIST: European banks

So when, on 20 March 1939, just after the Nazis marched into Prague, a message was sent to the BIS apparently by the Czech National Bank, the BIS duly passed the message on.

FORBES: Yes, Governments Do Steal Gold

Owned and controlled by the member central banks, the BIS provides them with data on capital flows and sets recommended regulatory standards such as capital-adequacy levels.

CNN: In Search of a Tougher Cop

Partly because of perceptions that the International Monetary Fund has become too powerful, governments are now considering a wider role for the BIS. Pakistan Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz says that the BIS could provide daily reports on the trading levels of each currency to give monetary authorities a better grasp of currency market movements.

CNN: In Search of a Tougher Cop

Using unique alphanumeric identifiers for financial firms would improve OTC derivatives markets, make it easier for regulators to see aggregated risk, and, once systems were changed over, would simplify record keeping, improve operational efficiency for firms and eliminate a lot of reconciliation work, according to a report the BIS issued from the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems and the Technical Committee of IOSCO.

FORBES: BIS and IOSCO Dither on Requiring Legal Entity Identifiers (LEI)

In a patent app made public this month, RIM's lab geeks describe setting up a proxy server right on the phone that would intercept the browser's web requests and bundle, compress, and send them to a gateway on the other end (BIS, we presume) that would know how to deal with the packet.

ENGADGET: RIM patent app will have you barely browsing the web at incredible speeds

It's hard to fathom that it's taken this long, but hey, we'll take it -- unfortunately, it's up to each carrier to decide when they're going to deploy BIS upgrades, so your mileage may vary on the wait time.

ENGADGET: RIM's BIS 3.0 email features apparently leaked, finally does Gmail justice

The IMF, World Bank and key regulatory agencies like the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) based in Basel should establish internationally agreed codes of best practices on monetary, financial and fiscal policy and corporate governance.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia