It created an important mechanism through which investors could formulate proposals to deal with the government defaults, particularly in the Great Depression following the 1929 Wall Street crash, including several early debt restructurings.
Ots Annual Reports summarised the debt history of relevant countries, accompanied by economic data and political information.
Representatives of the CFB would deal directly with a defaulting country on behalf of its members, giving it considerable influence.
The CFB maintained good relations with bondholders in other countries, including the bourses in Rotterdam and Amsterdam; Brussels and Antwerp; Frankfurt, Berlin, and Hamburg; Paris; and (to a lesser extent) New York.
The differences in practices between investors in the UK and the US often led to conflicting desires, and the Monroe Doctrine often allowed countries in Central and South American to default with impunity until Theodore Roosevelt announced in 1905 that Latin American countries could no longer use the US as a shield to avoid their debt obligations.
Prior to formation of the private, non-profit FBPC, no permanent organization existed to negotiate settlements with defaulting debtors.
As recently as 2002, both the Department of State and the Securities and Exchange Commission recommended creditors who hold more than 18,000 Chinese government bonds issued between 1913 and 1942 to seek the FBPC's assistance in negotiating fair settlements.