The American Dollar International Status and the Changes in the Financial System: the Role of Eurodollars and Shadow Banking

To a large extent, the international financial system has been – and continues to be – shaped by US public and private institutions. The aim of this article is to show that the path taken by the contemporary financial system accentuates the dominance of the US dollar in the various functions of money, including the billing and the settlement of international trade. The article is structured around two components, namely the demand (needs) for financial instruments, and the supply (the availability) of these instruments. The first part studies the needs arising from the abundant savings of transnational firms, while the second considers the financial techniques developed during the twentieth century, which are necessary for the multiplication of payment instruments in dollar. Eurodollars and shadow banking are then seen as mutations produced by the international monetary system and essential for the international status of the US dollar.