The Lender of Last Resort

Over the last quarter of a millennium “the Art of Central Banking”, as Hawtrey called it, has evolved the concept of a lender of last resort. The expression comes from the French dernier ressort, the legal jurisdiction beyond which it is impossible to take an appeal. But the term has become thoroughly anglicized, and in central-banking English it give greater emphasis to the responsibilities of the lender than, as in legal French, to the rights of the petitioner or borrower.