Press release - Departure of Mr Mathias Dewatripont, Director of the National Bank of Belgium

Upon his own request, his current mandate, due to end on the same date, will not be renewed.

Before starting his career at the Bank, Mathias Dewatripont could already boast an impressive career in the academic world. He studied Economics at the Université libre de Bruxelles, where he obtained a Master's degree in 1982, specialisation Econometrics. Four years later, he got his doctorate at the University of Harvard.

In 1985, Mr Dewatripont returned to the ULB, where he worked as a research fellow, lecturer and, later, from 1994, as a full professor. Besides his teaching work, Professor Dewatripont soon took on other administrative responsibilities at the university too.

Mr Dewatripont’s scientific work has earned many distinctions, at both national and international scale. As well as his active participation in a good many conferences, Mr Dewatripont was also highly sought after as a visiting professor. A variety of renowned organisations working in the economic realm have called on his expertise.

Mr Dewatripont was appointed Director of the Bank on 18 May 2011. In the years before that, he had published some outstanding analyses on financial stability. It therefore came as no surprise that, at the Bank, he was put in charge of the Prudential Policy and Financial Stability Service.

Mr Dewatripont made a particularly valuable contribution to developing the Bank’s policy in its new capacity as a prudential supervisory authority. More specifically, his involvement – as a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank – in the operational implementation of the single supervisory mechanism was unanimously appreciated.

In addition, he represented the Bank in various other national and foreign organisations and committees. Most notably, he was a member of the High Council of Finance, he had a seat on the National Accounts Institute’s Board of Directors, as well as being an Alternate Director at the Bank for International Settlements and a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

From 1 June 2014 to 10 March 2015, he also held the title of Vice-Governor. He was given the title of Honorary Vice-Governor by the King with effect from 11 March 2015.

We are extremely grateful for the outstanding service he has rendered the Bank as well as many other institutions that have benefited from his great intellectual qualities and his unwaveringly loyal and constructive collaboration.