Otmar Issing

Last Updated on 19 February 2020 by Jan-Paul Steggerda

Otmar Issing has been one of the most influential European central bankers over the past 10 years, being a member of the executive boards of the Bundesbank (German Central Bank) and the European Central Bank.

Having studied economics at the Universities of Würzburg (Germany), London and Paris, he wrote his PhD on Monetary Problems within the European Union. He was appointed Professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), and Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and for several projects he worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C.

In 2008 Professor Issing was appointed by Chancellor Merkel as Head of the Advisory Group on the New Financial Order. He also was a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on EU Financial Supervision chaired by Jacques de Larosière, and responsible for the De Larosière report.

Professor Issing was a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) since its creation in 1998 until 2006, responsible for the Directorate General Economics and the Directorate General Research. He was previously a member of the Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank (German central bank) with a seat on the bank’s Council.

Before that, Professor Issing held chairs of economics at the universities of Würzburg and Erlangen-Nürnberg, and was a member of the Council of Experts in Germany for the Assessment of Overall Economic Developments from 1988 to 1990.

Professor Issing is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Globalisation and Monetary Policy Institute of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and honorary professor of the universities of Würzburg and Frankfurt. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Bayreuth, Frankfurt and Konstanz and has received numerous prizes and honours. Otmar Issing is an active member of Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur (Academy of Sciences and Literature), Mainz, and of the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea (European Academy of Sciences and Arts).

He is also the author of numerous articles and books, such as The Birth of the Euro (English edition published in 2008).