The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important central banks with a balance sheet total of around 7 trillion.
The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) is an institution that comprises the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks (NCBs) of all 27 member states of the European Union (EU). Its objective is to ensure price stability throughout the EU, and improve monetary and financial cooperation between eurozone and non-eurozone member states of the EU.
The president of the European Central Bank is the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), the main institution responsible for the management of the euro and monetary policy in the Eurozone of the European Union (EU)
The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is a committee of the European Parliament which is responsible for the regulation of financial services, the free movement of capital and payments, taxation and competition policies, oversight of the European Central Bank, and the international financial system.
The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the eurozone, the collective of European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their sole official currency. The European Central Bank (ECB) has, under Article 16 of its Statute, the exclusive right to authorise the issuance of euro banknotes. Member states can issue euro coins, but the amount must be authorised by the ECB beforehand.
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is an Italian economist and banker who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2005 to 2011. He has been chairman of Société Générale since 2015.
Jürgen Stark is a German economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2006 to 2011 and concurrently as ECB chief economist. Within the Executive Board, he was responsible for Economics and for Monetary Analysis and resigned before expiration of his term in opposition to ECB's bond-buying programme.
José M. González-Páramo is a Spanish economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2004 to 2012.
Yves Mersch is a Luxembourgish jurist and lawyer who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2012 to 2020. He previously served as first Governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg from 1998 to 2012.
Athanasios Orphanides is a Cypriot economist who served as Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus between 3 May 2007 to 2 May 2012 and as a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank between 1 January 2008 and 2 May 2012.
Peter Praet is a Belgian economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2011 to 2019 and concurrently as ECB chief economist following his 2012 appointment.
Jörg Asmussen is a German economist and banker has been serving as Chief Executive Officer of the German Insurance Association (GDV) since 2020.
Benoît Georges Cœuré is a French economist who has been serving as President of the Autorité de la concurence since 2022. He previously served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2012 to 2019.
European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is referred to as ECB Banking Supervision. EU member states outside of the euro area can also participate on a voluntary basis, as was the case of Bulgaria as of late 2023. European Banking Supervision was established by Regulation 1024/2013 of the Council, also known as the SSM Regulation, which also created its central decision-making body, the ECB Supervisory Board.
Sabine Lautenschläger is a German jurist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as vice-president of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 2011 to 2013.
The European banking union refers to the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the member state-level to the union-wide level in several EU member states, initiated in 2012 as a response to the 2009 Eurozone crisis. The motivation for the banking union was the fragility of numerous banks in the Eurozone, and the identification of a vicious circle between credit conditions for these banks and the sovereign credit of their respective home countries. In several countries, private debts arising from a property bubble were transferred to the respective sovereign as a result of banking system bailouts and government responses to slowing economies post-bubble. Conversely, weakness in sovereign credit resulted in deterioration of the balance sheet position of the banking sector, not least because of high domestic sovereign exposures of the banks.
Isabel Schnabel is a German economist who has been serving as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank since 2020.
Fabio Panetta is an Italian economist who has been serving as Governor of the Bank of Italy since 2023. He previously served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2020 until 2023. Prior to his ECB appointment, Panetta served as Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy and concurrently as President of the Institute for the Supervision of Insurance from May to December 2019.
Frank Elderson is a Dutch lawyer who has been serving as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank since 2020.
Christine Lagarde 
Luis de Guindos 
Philip R. Lane 
Isabel Schnabel 
Frank Elderson 
Piero Cipollone 
