Alexandre Lamfalussy

1949-1976
He left his native country in 1949, studied economics at the Catholic University of Louvain (1949-1953), and afterwards spent two years on post-graduate research at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he obtained a doctorate (D.Phil.) in economics. From 1955 to 1975 he worked with Banque de Bruxelles, first as Economic Adviser and later as member of the Executive Board. On a “sabbatical” from the Bank, he was visiting lecturer at Yale University during the academic year 1961-62.

1976-1993
He joined the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel in 1976 as Economic Adviser and Head of the Monetary and Economic Department. In May 1985 he was appointed General Manager of the BIS, a position he held until the end of 1993. During his tenure of office – in 1988-89 – he was member of the “Delors Committee”, which was entrusted by the European Council with the task of “proposing concrete stages leading towards monetary and economic union”.

1994-1997
From 1 January 1994 until 30 June 1997 he served as President of the European Monetary Institute in Frankfurt – the institution which was in charge of setting up the European Central Bank and designing the operational framework for the single monetary policy.

2000-2001
In July 2000 the European Finance Ministers (Ecofin) appointed him Chairman of the Committee of Wise Men on the Regulation of the European Securities Markets. The Committee’s recommendations, presented in its report on 15 February 2001, were endorsed by Ecofin and the Stockholm Summit, and are now being implemented. At the same time the report’s “four-level” regulatory process has been extended to the whole financial services industry.

2008
Alexandre Lamfalussy has been appointed Chairman of the High Level Committee on a New Financial Architecture.

Photo de droite: Alexandre Lamfalussy lors de la conférence "The Specificity of the Current Crisis" le 30 avril 2009, (C) Banque nationale de Belgique