FRANKFURT AM MAIN, 17 April 2018. The EBI is pleased to announce the formation of its Board of Trustees.
Within the Board of Trustees, the EBI endeavours to invite top past and present executives from public and private sector institutions to support the EBI in pursuing its task as a new organisation in the European academic field.
The greater need for a harmonisation of rules and regulations in European banking ultimately goes back to the introduction of the Euro in Europe in 1999. With the Treaty of Maastricht, Europe decided to introduce the common currency in Europe as the ultimate target. This immense step in European integration required, in particular, the Eurozone countries to work much closer together in many different policy fields, not the least in banking regulation and banking supervision. It also required a greater need for harmonisation of these policy fields amongst the Eurozone members. After the last financial crisis in Europe it became apparent to policy makers that a monetary union also requires a banking union in Europe.
Therefore, it is fair to say that the Treaty of Maastricht and its signatories also laid the foundation for a strongly integrated legal framework for regulating and supervising banks. An indepth European research in the area of banking regulation and banking supervision are the core areas of the academic work of the EBI. Every strong banking market requires, in addition to market participants, regulators and supervisors, also a strong academic involvement in the ongoing debate about the future development of banking regulation. The EBI can be one key academic participant in this debate with its European approach in research.
The President of the Supervisory Board, Dr. Thomas Gstädtner, is therefore very honoured that the following signatories of the Treaty of Maastricht have accepted to join the EBI Board of Trustees: Former Financial Secretary to the Treasury of the United Kingdom, Sir Francis Maude, Former Finance Minister of Portugal, Mr Jorge Braga de Macedo, Former Foreign Minister of Belgium, Mr Mark Eyskens, Former Finance Minister of Spain, Mr. Carlos Solchaga Catalan.
Their active involvement in the negotiations and subsequent signing of the Treaty of Maastricht ultimately led to the introduction of the Euro. All four signatories combine a vast resource of knowledge and experience/judgment in economics, finance and financial policy making and will be a great contribution to the work of the EBI which they will support with their advice.
Besides the aforementioned persons also Dr. Thomas Gstädtner, President of the Supervisory Board of the EBI will be a member of EBI’s Board of Trustees.
Additional information on the European Banking Institute, its members and governing bodies are available on: www.ebi-europa.eu