1. Yves Mersch previously served as first Governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg from 1998 to 2012.
14 Facts About Yves Mersch
1. 2.
Yves Mersch served as assistant to the IMF's Belgian executive director between 1976 and 1978 and later held a short-term position as financial counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg in New York.
3.
Between 1989 and 1998, Yves Mersch served as Director of the Treasury and as personal representative in the Ministry of Finance for the negotiations leading to the Maastricht Treaty.
4.
Yves Mersch turned down an opportunity to run a European Commission Directorate-General under President Jacques Santer in 1995.
5.
Yves Mersch participated in the 1988 European Council meeting in Hannover that re-launched the monetary-union process.
6.
In 2010, Yves Mersch lost out against Vitor Constancio who was appointed vice president of European Central Bank, for an eight-year mandate, in a banking supervision capacity.
7.
Yves Mersch has been a member of the European Central Bank's Executive Board, succeeding Jose Manuel Gonzalez Paramo, since December 2012.
8.
The President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, assigned Yves Mersch to working jointly with Constancio on the Eurozone banking union.
9.
Since both Governors of National Central Banks and members of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank sit on its Governing Council, Yves Mersch has been a member of the Governing Council since its beginnings.
10.
On 19 March 2008, Yves Mersch admonished banks for inappropriate risk management, but perhaps more unusually struck a doveish tone with regard to the future path of the European economy.
11.
Yves Mersch has been regarded as relatively hawkish on interest rate policy.
12.
Yves Mersch was described as "a key member" of the ECB Governing Council in the report.
13.
Yves Mersch is married to Malaysian economist Tengku Khatijah Ahmad and has two children.
14.
Yves Mersch was a competitive gymnast until the age of 45.