Bank of Finland 200 years – Parliament's Bank (part II)

Bank of Finland 200 years history book

Bank of Finland 200 years – Parliament's Bank (part II)

Author(s): Antti Kuusterä and Juha Tarkka

2012 . 816

Publisher: Suomen Pankki – Bank of Finland and Otava Publishing Company

ISBN: 978-951-1-24274-1 (Printed publication)

Download publication (pdf) (8.91 MB)

​For two hundred years the Bank of Finland has been at the hub of the nation. At the same time it has acted as a bridge linking Finland to the world economy. The history of the bank has its share of dramatic moments. Political and economic crises have always been reflected at the Bank of Finland. 

The second volume of this work studies the Bank of Finland from the war years until the outset of European monetary union. 

The history of the Bank has been written by banking historian Antti Kuusterä Ph.D. and Juha Tarkka Ph.D., Advisor to the Board at the Bank of Finland. The books are being published by Otava Publishing Company.

The publication being released on 20 August 2012 is the second of a two-part narrative of the history of the Bank, entitled 'Parliament's Bank'.

During the Second World War the central bank financed the war effort while acting as a conduit for Finland’s growing debt to Germany. The book shows how, during the post-war decades, the Bank of Finland became increasingly an instrument of domestic politics
until the economic crisis of the 1970s, when monetary policy took a more independent direction under governor Mauno Koivisto.

The bank played a crucial role as an engine of growth policy and Finland’s international economic integration. The book also presents new perspectives on Finland’s cataclysmic economic crisis in the early 1990s, and its course towards European monetary union.

The book is on sale at the Bank of Finland Museum (in Finnish and in English), from the Otava bookshop and Online Outlet as well from well-stocked bookshops (in Finnish).