Social Responsibility in the Operation of Central Banks

Abstract

In our study, we set out from the hypothesis that the social responsibility of central banks is peculiar, since these were established decidedly for the benefit of the common good. For the interpretation of their social responsibility, we first examine the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in corporate practice. After this, we transpose the interpretation of CSR, applied to the operation of central banks. We interpret the concept of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility in connection with the activity of central banks. Using examples, we shed light on how we specifically interpret the individual components of corporate social responsibility in the central bank practice, via the activity of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the central banks of the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic.