Ignazio Visco (; born 21 November 1949) is an Italian

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

and

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...

er and the current

Governor of the Bank of Italy The Governor of the Bank of Italy is the most senior position in the Bank of Italy. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming his or her successor. List of governors ...

Early life and education

Visco was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

on 21 November 1949. He obtained a '' summa cum laude'' degree in economics from the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

in 1971 with Federico Caffè as supervisor and continued his studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

( Economics Department), where he obtained an MA in 1974 and a PhD in 1981.

Career

In 1972 Visco began his career at the

Bank of Italy The Bank of Italy ( Italian: ''Banca d'Italia'', informally referred to as ''Bankitalia''), (), is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. It is located in Palazzo Koch, via Nazionale, Rome. The bank's cur ...

and in 1990 he was named head of the research department; from 1997 to 2002 he was chief economist of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

) and on 9 January 2007 he was named deputy director-general of the Bank of Italy (alongside Giovanni Carosio) and a member of its ''Direttorio'' (Board of Directors). On 24 October 2011 Visco was named to succeed

Mario Draghi Mario Draghi (; born 3 September 1947) is an Italian economist, academic, banker and civil servant who served as prime minister of Italy from February 2021 to October 2022. Prior to his appointment as prime minister, he served as President of ...

as governor of the Bank of Italy by

Italian President The president of Italy, officially denoted as president of the Italian Republic ( it, Presidente della Repubblica Italiana) is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian poli ...

Giorgio Napolitano. Starting from 1 January 2013, in accordance with Legislative Decree 95/12 (converted into law, with modifications, from Law no.135/2012), he also holds the position of chairman of the joint governing board of the Italian Insurance Supervisory Authority ( IVASS). On 28 January 2015, Ignazio Visco was placed under investigation by the Prosecutor of Spoleto as part a probe into the special administration of

Banca Popolare di Spoleto Banca may refer to: Places * Bangka Island, an island lying east of Sumatra, part of Indonesia * Banca, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a commune of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département'', France * Banca, Tasmania, a locality in Tasmania, Australia * ...

. In September 2016, the case was definitively dropped by a judge, upholding the prosecutor's request. During his time in office, Visco came under fire for failing to effectively tackle Italy's banking woes. In October 2017, the country's ruling centre-left Democratic Party submitted a motion in parliament calling for new leadership at the Bank of Italy, casting doubt on Visco's chances of being reappointed to a second term. Following a proposal made by Prime Minister

Paolo Gentiloni Paolo Gentiloni Silveri (; born 22 November 1954) is an Italian politician who has served as European Commissioner for Economy in the von der Leyen Commission since 1 December 2019. He previously served as prime minister of Italy from December ...

and his cabinet to renominate Visco and the endorsement of the Bank of Italy's high council, however, President

Sergio Mattarella Sergio Mattarella (; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician, jurist, academic and lawyer who has served as the president of Italy since 2015. A Christian leftist politician, Mattarella was a leading member of the Christian Democracy par ...

signed a decree to reappoint Visco for a second six-year term.

Other activities

European Union institutions

European Systemic Risk Board The European Systemic Risk Board () is a group established on 16 December 2010 in response to the ongoing financial crisis. It is tasked with the macro-prudential oversight of the financial system within the European Union in order to contrib ...

(ESRB), Ex-Officio Member

International organizations

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offic ...

, ex-officio member of the Board of Governors *

Bank for International Settlements The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution owned by central banks that "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks". The BIS carries out its work thr ...

, ex-officio member of the Board of Directors *

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 ...

, ex-officio member of the whitehouse * Inter-American Development Bank, alternate member of the Board of Governors *

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

(IMF), alternate member of the Board of Governors * Italian American Economic Association, assistant * Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee, member *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

, ex-officio member of the Board of GovernorsBoard of Governors

Works

*''Price Expectations in Rising Inflation'', North Holland, 1984 *''Le aspettative nell'analisi economica'', Il Mulino, 1985 *''Inflazione, concorrenza e sviluppo'' (with Stefano Micossi), Il Mulino, 1993 *''Saving and the Accumulation of Wealth'' (with

Albert Ando was a Japanese-born economist. Biography He was born in Tokyo, as a member of family running Ando Corporation, a major construction company. He didn't join the family business, and came to the United States after World War II. He received hi ...

and Luigi Guiso), Cambridge University Press, 1994 *''L'economia italiana'' (with Federico L. Signorini), Il Mulino, 2002 *''Ageing and Pension System Reform'' (as Chairman of the G-10 Working Group), 2005
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*''Investire in conoscenza'', Il Mulino, 2009

Awards and honors

References

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Visco, Vincenzo 1949 births Governors of the Bank of Italy Italian bankers Italian economists Living people Writers from Naples Sapienza University of Rome alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni