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 an ...

. From January 2012, she was president of the

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (), better known by its abbreviation BaFin, is Germany's integrated financial regulatory authority. Since 2014, it has been Germany's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision. ...

(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 bank resolution authority for a subset of banks in the euro area and as t ...

(SRB) of the Single Resolution Mechanism headquartered in Brussels. She served as Chair of the SRB until January 2023, when her second term expired.

Early life and education

König was born near

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

(

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

).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 by Handelsblatt Media Group, formerly known as Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt. History and profile ''Handelsblatt'' was es ...

of 25 January 2012 Design. She studied

Business Administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...

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 Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company () is a German Multinational corporation, multinational insurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is the world's largest reinsurance, reinsurer. ERGO Insurance Group, ERGO, a subsidiary of Munich ...

, König was Head of Accounting before moving to Hannover Rückversicherung AG, the world's third-biggest reinsurer at the time, as

Chief Financial Officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

. 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 am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. In her capacity as president of BaFin, König also served as a 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 in the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh Summit as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) ...

. 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 borrow unsecured funds from counterparties in the euro wholes ...

) to include a special probe of German banks. In 2013, König and Claudia Buch were cited by German media as contenders for a post on the Executive Board of the European Central Bank that eventually went to Sabine Lautenschläger. In late 2014, König resigned from her post at BaFin; her successor was Felix Hufeld who took office in 2015.

Chair of the SRB, 2014–2023

By late 2014, König was nominated by Finance Minister

Wolfgang Schäuble Wolfgang Schäuble (; 18 September 1942 – 26 December 2023) was a German politician whose political career spanned more than five decades. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the longest-serving member of any democratic G ...

for the top job at the SRM, a Eurozone 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 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 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

head,

Philippe Maystadt Philippe M.P.J. Maystadt (14 March 1948 – 7 December 2017) was a Belgium, Belgian politician who served as Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister of Finance (Belgium), Minister of Finance, and Deputy Prime Minister. He was President of the Eur ...

, 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 Pop ...

to rival

Banco Santander Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group ( , , ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Santander, with operative offices in Madrid. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres ...

, the first wind-down of a

eurozone The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...

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

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

proposed to extend König's mandate for five years. In January 2023, when König's second term expired, Dominique Laboureix succeeded her as the new chair of the SRB.

Other activities

* Hannover Center of Finance, Honorary Member *

Institute for Law and Finance An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

(ILF) at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research 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 wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (-2015)

Personal life

König is married and has two children. She lives in

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

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

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

''.

Publications

* '' Targeted external

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

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