Prof. Otmar Issing

Otmar Issing has shaped monetary policy in Europe like no other central banker, first as a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, and from 1998 as chief economist and member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB). From 2008 to 2012, Issing headed the Federal Government's expert commission for reforming the international financial markets and also joined a comparable advisory body of the European Commission. Further teaching and research stays took him to the Philipps University of Marburg, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. In September 1990, he took over the position of chief economist at the Deutsche Bundesbank. For years, Issing played a key role in shaping European monetary policy. As chief economist of the ECB, he prepared the interest rate decisions in the Central Bank Council and earned a reputation as a determined opponent of inflation. Especially in Germany, Otmar Issing is seen by many as a guarantor of the German central bank's stability policy orientation in Europe.