Speaker : Paul Mercier
Deputy Director General of Market Operations at the European Central Bank
Chairman of the Working Group on Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy Instruments and Procedures

Paul Mercier was born in Leuven (Louvain), Belgium in 1952. He studied economics at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

He is currently Deputy Director General of Market Operations at the European Central Bank. He is Chairman of the Working Group on Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy Instruments and Procedures, in which the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the European Union are represented.

He was previously Head of Financial Markets of the European Monetary Institute (EMI). In this capacity Paul Mercier participated in the design of the monetary policy and foreign exchange policy instruments of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Before joining the European Monetary Institute in November 1994, he served in the National Bank of Belgium (the Belgian central bank) in Brussels where he worked in the field of monetary policy. From September 1980 to January 1985, he was first an Attache, then a Deputy Adviser in the Credit Department.

From January 1985 to January 1989, Paul Mercier worked as an Adviser in the Office of Commissioner Mr. Willy De Clercq at the European Commission in Brussels.

In January 1989, he returned to the Credit Department of the National Bank of Belgium as a Department Adviser.

For thirteen years (i.e. from September 1982 to September 1995), he was a Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Law of the University Saint Louis in Brussels, and published various scientific papers.

His most recent publication is Fondements d' Economie Politique, 3eme edition, Jacquemain/Tulkens/Mercier, De Boeck Universite, 2000.