http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/329714440

Do central banks need capital?

Recently, central banks in such diverse countries as Ghana, Bolivia, Uganda, El Salvador, and the Philippines have been recapitalized and the issue is under active discussion in others where central bank losses have become problematic, e.g., Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Jamaica, Liberia, Peru, Romania, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia. In some cases, the underlying problem was obscured by the practice of declaring and transferring sizeable profits to government, although under more careful accounting practice, large losses would have been recognized and the transfers suspended or reversed. Ignorance or neglect of this situation over a sustained period of time led to a deterioration of the balance sheet to a point where further losses became virtually inevitable. These losses eroded central bank independence and made the effective conduct of monetary policy difficult or impossible.

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