This conference, attended by Keynes, among others, saw the signing of the agreements to set up the International Monetary Fund and the new exchange-rate system, which remained in force until the beginning of the 1970s. The system to which the Bretton Woods agreements gave birth replaced gold with the US dollar, insofar as exchange rates were fixed in relation to the dollar rather than to gold, although an indirect link to gold was maintained through the dollar/gold parity. It was agreed 3/7  at Bretton Woods to set up the institution charged with oversight of the stability of the international system of exchange rates, namely the International Monetary Fund. The “dollar standard” set the tone for the post-Second World War period. This era of relative stability and widespread prosperity ended in the early 1970s, when the US government suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold, one of the pillars of the Bretton Woods agreements. This occurred when the markets came to believe that the dollar/gold parity overvalued the former, in a context of the economic and financial disruption that followed the oil market crisis in 1973. The system of fixed but adjustable exchange rates was abandoned and replaced by a floating exchange rate system, and at the same time all the rules relating to the convertibility of the various currencies into gold were also abandoned. Since then, the system of floating or variable exchange rates has been the mainstay of the international currency market.
16.06.2017  Speech by the Governor of the Banco de España at the 2017 CUNEF graduation ceremony Luis M. Linde Governor  It is an honour to be here with you today, to celebrate the CUNEF University 2017 graduation ceremony for graduates and postgraduates. Allow me to congratulate all those who are graduating today, and to express my gratitude for the invitation to preside over this ceremony, which it has been a great pleasure to accept. Since its foundation more than 40 years ago, CUNEF University has played a very important role in the education of banking and finance professionals in Spain. CUNEF graduates occupy important positions not only in the private sector but also in the public sector, including in the institution that I represent. And I am sure that the students graduating today will maintain the tradition of professional excellence built by this university. I would like to focus today on what is, without a doubt, the key function of central banks: monetary policy. I will start with a brief historical outline of how the functions of central banks have changed from when they were first established up until the present day, and I will then describe the current framework for monetary policy implementation, concluding with some reflections on the main challenges we face following the economic and financial crisis that broke ten years ago this year. The evolving role of central banks Central banks are offspring of the Enlightenment.