A paper commissioned by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) makes a useful distinction of 3 epochs: (i) the Victorian era (1840s to 1914); (ii) the decades of government control (1930s to 1960s); and (iii) the triumph of the markets (1980s to 2007)1.
Central banks were put into the spotlight in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008/09, prompting greater public demand for transparency in their operations. The historical, economic and geographical contexts shape the expectations for central banks outside of the basic goal of maintaining the value of domestic currencies.