Elke König (born 28 January 1954) is a German MBA in Business and

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting and au ...

. From January 2012, she was president of the

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (german: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht) better known by its abbreviation BaFin is the financial regulatory authority for Germany. It ...

(BaFin); in December 2014, she became the first Chair of the newly established

Single Resolution Board The Single Resolution Board (SRB) is an EU agency that was established in Brussels in 2015 as part of the broader set of reforms known as the banking union. It acts as the resolution authority for a subset of banks in the euro area and as the insti ...

(SRB) of the

Single Resolution Mechanism The Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) is one of the pillars of the European Union's European Union banking union, banking union. The Single Resolution Mechanism entered into force on 19 August 2014 and is directly responsible for the resolution ...

headquartered in Brussels.

Early life and education

König was born near

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

(

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

).Frank Drost, Peter Köhler, Susanne Metzger:. '' Elke König - champion of clarity. ''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Du ...

of 25 January 2012 Design. She studied

Business Administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

from 1972 to 1976, where she earned a doctoral degree (Dr rer. pol.) between 1976 and 1980.

Career

From 1980 to 1990, König worked for KPMG Deutsche Treuhandgesellschaft in Cologne auditing and advising insurance undertakings, from 1986 as a holder of a special statutory authority (“Prokuristin”) and from 1988 as a director and partner. From 1990 to 2002, as a member of senior management of the Munich Re Group, König was Head of Accounting before moving to Hannover Rückversicherung AG, the world's third-biggest reinsurer at the time, as

Chief Financial Officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

. From 2010 to end-2011, König was a member of the

International Accounting Standards Board The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is the independent accounting standard-setting body of the IFRS Foundation. The IASB was founded on April 1, 2001, as the successor to the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). ...

(IASB) in London.

President of BaFin, 2012–2014

In January 2012, König was the successor of Jochen Sanio as president of the

(BaFin) in Bonn. The formal handover took place on 24 January 2012 in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. In her capacity as president of BaFin, König also served as member of the

Financial Stability Board The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It was established after the G20 London summit in April 2009 as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum ...

. During her time in office, BaFin escalated an investigation into possible manipulation of the euro interbank offered rate (

Euribor The Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) is a daily reference rate, published by the European Money Markets Institute, based on the averaged interest rates at which Eurozone banks offer to lend unsecured funds to other banks in the euro whole ...

) to include a special probe of German banks. In 2013, König and

Claudia Buch Claudia Maria Buch (also Claudia-Maria Buch; born March 1966) is a German economist who currently serves as Vice President of the Bundesbank. She previously worked as professor at the University of Tübingen and served as a member of the German C ...

were cited by German media as contenders for a post on the

Executive Board of the European Central Bank The Executive Board of the European Central Bank is the organ responsible for implementing monetary policy for the Eurozone in line with the guidelines and decisions taken by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. The Executive Board ...

that eventually went to

Sabine Lautenschläger Sabine Lautenschläger (born 3 June 1964) is a German jurist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as vice-president of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 2011 to 2013.

. In late 2014, König resigned from her post at BaFin; her successor was Felix Hufeld who took office in 2015.

Chair of the SRB, 2014–present

By late 2014, König was nominated by Finance Minister

Wolfgang Schäuble Wolfgang Schäuble (; born 18 September 1942) is a German lawyer, politician and statesman whose political career has spanned for more than five decades. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he is one of the longest-serving politi ...

for the top job at the ESM, an EU fund designed to limit the fallout from a collapse of the banking system; at the time, Governor of the National Bank of Belgium

Luc Coene Luc Coene (11 March 1947 – 5 January 2017) was a Belgian economist. He was Governor of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) from April 2011 until March 2015 . Education Luc Coene was born in Ghent and graduated in economics at Ghent University in ...

as well as the former

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States. It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions ...

head,

Philippe Maystadt Philippe M.P.J. Maystadt (14 March 1948 – 7 December 2017) was a Belgian politician who served as Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister of Finance, and Deputy Prime Minister. He was President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) from 2000 to ...

, were considered her contenders for the three-year mandate. As Chair of the SRB, König is responsible for the management of the organisation, the work of the Board, the budget, all staff, and the Executive and Plenary sessions of the Board. The General Counsel, the Policy Coordination and International Relations Unit, the Communications office and the Internal Audit function report directly to her. In addition to her role in the EU Agency, she chairs the Resolution Steering Group of the

(FSB). During her first term in office, König oversaw the sale of Spain's ailing

Banco Popular Español Banco Popular Español, S.A. () was the sixth largest banking group in Spain before it was bought by Banco Santander as part of a rescue package in June 2017. Components The group consisted of the following companies: national bank Banco Popular ...

to rival

Banco Santander Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centres ...

, the first wind-down of a

eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies ...

bank under new rules aimed at reducing taxpayers’ costs when lenders fail. In November 2017, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

proposed to extend König's mandate for five years.

Other activities

* Hannover Center of Finance, Honorary Member *

Institute for Law and Finance The Institute for Law and Finance (ILF) is a graduate school which was established as a non-profit foundation in 2002 by Goethe University Frankfurt am Main with the support of many prominent institutions. Leading commercial banks and internationa ...

(ILF) at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (-2015)

Personal life

König is married and has two children. She lives in

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

.Philipp Krohn (July 5, 2010)
Elke König: Bilanzen im Blut
''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

''.

Publications

* '' Targeted external

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

for public broadcasters in the Federal Republic of Germany: Reflections on an aligned to the information interests of the audience external accounting ''. Series of the Institute for Broadcasting Law at the University of Cologne, Vol. 35; simultaneously Dissertation Univ. Cologne 1981. C.H. Beck, Munich 1983, .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Elke Businesspeople from Cologne 1954 births Women presidents of organizations Living people University of Cologne alumni