The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, an internationalist who sought to address the challenges posed by the growing economic and political interdependence between the U.S. and its allies in North America, Western Europe, and Japan.
Jean-Claude Trichet is a French economist who served as President of the European Central Bank from 2004 to 2011. Previous to his assumption of the presidency he served as Governor of the Bank of France from 1993 to 2004.
Bruegel is a think tank devoted to policy research on economic issues. Based in Brussels, it launched its operations in 2005 and currently conducts research in five different focus areas with the aim of improving economic debate and policy-making.
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.
Marek Marian Belka is a Polish professor of economics and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Poland and Finance Minister of Poland in two governments. He is a former Director of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) European Department and former Head of Narodowy Bank Polski. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since July 2019.
The Bank of Finland is the Finnish member of the Eurosystem and has been the monetary authority for Finland from 1812 to 1998, issuing the markka. It views itself as the fourth oldest surviving central bank in the world, after Sweden's Riksbank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of France.
Olli Ilmari Rehn is a Finnish economist and public official who has been serving as governor of the Bank of Finland since 2018. A member of the Centre Party, he previously served as the European Commissioner for Enlargement from 2004 to 2010, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro from 2010 to 2014, and Minister of Economic Affairs in Juha Sipilä's cabinet from 2015 until 2016. Rehn ran for President of Finland as an independent candidate in 2024, but was not elected.
Ewald Nowotny is an Austrian economist and social democratic politician and former governor of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank. He was also a member of the European Central Bank’s governing council.
Étienne, Count Davignon is a Belgian former diplomat, top civil servant, businessman, and former vice-president of the European Commission.
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, OMRI was an Italian banker and economist who served as Italy's Minister of Economy and Finance from 2006 to 2008. He previously served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 1998 to 2005. Padoa-Schioppa is considered as a founding father of the European single currency. He was a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.
Axel Alfred Weber is a German economist, professor, and banker. He is currently a board member and chairman of Swiss investment bank and financial services company, UBS Group AG, and has announced his resignation effective 7 April 2022.
Sirkka Aune-Marjatta Hämäläinen is a Finnish economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 1998 to 2003. She previously served as the governor of the Bank of Finland from 1992 to 1998. Hämäläinen was the first woman to hold either post.
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.
Matti Kalevi Louekoski is a Finnish politician and a lawyer as profession. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) and a former long-term member of the governing board of the Bank of Finland.
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.
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.
The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation or IFRS Foundation is a nonprofit organization that oversees financial reporting standard-setting. Its main objectives include the development and promotion of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), through the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) for accounting standards and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) for sustainability-related standards.
The Liikanen Report or "Report of the European Commission’s High-level Expert Group on Bank Structural Reform" is a set of recommendations published in October 2012 by a group of experts led by Erkki Liikanen, governor of the Bank of Finland and ECB council member. On 3 July 2013, by large majority the European Parliament adopted an own initiative report called "Reforming the structure of the EU banking sector" that welcomes structural reform measures at Union level to tackle concerns on Too big to fail banks, that led to the publication of a proposal of Regulation on structural measures improving the resilience of EU credit institutions in January 2014. This proposal was withdrawn in July 2018.
The banking union refers to the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the national to the European Union (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 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.
