The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime 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.
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.
The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 20 members. It exercises political control over the currency and related aspects of the EU's monetary union such as the Stability and Growth Pact. The current President of the Eurogroup is Paschal Donohoe,the Minister for Public Expenditure,National Development Plan Delivery and Reform of Ireland.
The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is a special purpose vehicle financed by members of the eurozone to address the European sovereign-debt crisis. It was agreed by the Council of the European Union on 9 May 2010,with the objective of preserving financial stability in Europe by providing financial assistance to eurozone states in economic difficulty. The Facility's headquarters are in Luxembourg City,as are those of the European Stability Mechanism. Treasury management services and administrative support are provided to the Facility by the European Investment Bank through a service level contract. Since the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism,the activities of the EFSF are carried out by the ESM.
The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) is a group established on 16 December 2010 in response to the ongoing financial crisis. It is tasked with the macro-prudential oversight of the financial system within the European Union in order to contribute to the prevention or mitigation of systemic risks to financial stability in the EU. It shall contribute to the smooth functioning of the internal market and thereby ensure a sustainable contribution of the financial sector to economic growth.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) is a regulatory agency of the European Union headquartered in La Défense,Île-de-France. Its activities include conducting stress tests on European banks to increase transparency in the European financial system and identifying weaknesses in banks' capital structures.
Arnout Henricus Elisabeth Maria "Nout" Wellink is a Dutch economist and former central banker.
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City,which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was established on 27 September 2012 as a permanent firewall for the eurozone,to safeguard and provide instant access to financial assistance programmes for member states of the eurozone in financial difficulty,with a maximum lending capacity of €500 billion. It has replaced two earlier temporary EU funding programmes:the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM).
Klaas Henderikus Willem Knot is a Dutch economist and central banker who is the current President of the Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). In this capacity he serves as a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB),as well as of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Knot also holds a position as Professor in Monetary Stability at the University of Amsterdam and honorary professor at the University of Groningen.
Luis de Guindos Jurado is a Spanish politician serving as Vice-President of the European Central Bank since 2018. He previously served as Spain's Minister of Economy,Industry and Competitiveness from 2011 to 2018.
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.
Danièle Nouy is a French public servant who served as Chair of the Supervisory Board at the European Central Bank from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2018. In this capacity,she was regarded as the effective head of European Banking Supervision.
The Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) is one of the pillars of the European Union's banking union. The Single Resolution Mechanism entered into force on 19 August 2014 and is directly responsible for the resolution of the entities and groups directly supervised by the European Central Bank as well as other cross-border groups. The centralised decision making is built around the Single Resolution Board (SRB) consisting of a chair,a Vice Chair,four permanent members,and the relevant national resolution authorities.
The banking union of the European Union is the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the national to the EU level in several EU member states,initiated in 2012 as a response to the Eurozone crisis. The motivation for banking union was the fragility of numerous banks in the Eurozone,and the identification of 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 sovereign debt 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.
Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) is an advisory body to the Eurogroup of the European Union. It is composed of representatives of the euro area member states of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC),the European Commission and the European Central Bank. The President of the Eurogroup Working Group is Tuomas Saarenheimo,who entered the job in April 2020 and is also the President of the EFC. Previously,the posts had been held by Hans Vijlbrief and Thomas Wieser.
Thomas Wieser is an American-Austrian economist working for the European Union. He was the president of Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) of the EU as well as the president of the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG),both advisory bodies of the Eurogroup,until February 2018.
Mário JoséGomes de Freitas Centeno is a Portuguese economist,university professor,and politician. From 2015 to 2020,he was Minister of Finance of Portugal in the government cabinet of Prime Minister António Costa of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS). He was the president of the Eurogroup and chairman of the board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism from 2018 to 2020. Previously,he was a board member economist of the Bank of Portugal. On 9 June 2020,he announced his resignation from the Ministry of Finance,effective 15 June. On 16 July 2020,the Council of Ministers approved Centeno's nomination for the post of Governor of the Bank of Portugal,put forward by his successor as Finance minister,João Leão. Centeno is the author or co-author of several scientific publications,books and book chapters related to his areas of interest,such as labour economics,econometrics,microeconomics and contract theory.
Sustainable finance is the set of financial regulations,standards,norms and products that pursue an environmental objective. It allows the financial system to connect with the economy and its populations by financing its agents while maintaining a growth objective. The long-standing concept was promoted with the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement,which stipulates that parties must make "finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development." In addition,sustainable finance had already a key role to play in the European Green Deal and in other EU International agreements,but since the COVID-19 pandemic its role is even more important.
The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) is a network of 114 central banks and financial supervisors that aims to accelerate the scaling up of green finance and develop recommendations for central banks' role for climate change. The NGFS was created in 2017 and its secretariat is hosted by the Banque de France. Its current chair is Ravi Menon,Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The NGFS has been awarded best green initiative of the year 2020 by Centralbanking.com.
Piero Cipollone is an Italian economist and central banker who has been serving as deputy governor of the Bank of Italy. In November 2023,he prematurely ended his mandate to join the Executive Board of the European Central Bank succeeding to Fabio Panetta.
