Otmar Issing

Otmar Issing was previously the chair of economics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg from 1967–73 and held the same role at the University of Würzburg from 1973–90, during which time he was a member of the German Council of Economic Experts (1988–90).

He joined the board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, where he had a seat at the central bank council from 1990 until 1998, when he became a founding member of the executive board of the European Central Bank, responsible for the directorates for general economics and research – a position he held until 2006. He was appointed by German chancellor Angela Merkel to head her Advisory Group on the New Financial Order (2008–12) and was a member of the High-level Group of the European Commission, chaired by Jacques de Larosière (2008–09).

Issing is president of the Centre for Financial Studies and chairman of the board of trustees of the House of Finance at Goethe University. He is also an international adviser to Goldman Sachs. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Bayreuth, Frankfurt and Konstanz, and is an honorary professor at the universities of Frankfurt and Würzburg. Issing is the author of Die Einführung in die Geldtheorie (Introduction to monetary theory) (Munich: Franz Vahlen, fifteenth edition, 2011) and Der Euro (Munich: Franz Vahlen, 2008).

Articles by Otmar Issing

Operating framework

An assessment of the ECB’s strategy review

A number of aspects of the new framework raise challenges for implementation and credibility, while the inclusion of climate change may politicise the institution, writes euro architect Otmar Issing

10 Aug 2021

Operating framework

The ECB’s monetary policy strategy review

The ECB’s founding monetary policy architect, Otmar Issing, offers some initial perspectives on the ECB’s strategy review

16 Jul 2021

People

Hans Tietmeyer and his ‘mission’ for euro stability

Otmar Issing on how the former Bundesbank president helped to drive Germany’s social market economy and was instrumental in the stable introduction of the euro

04 Jan 2017

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