Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez (born 3 April 1945) is a Spanish

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, 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 ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

, member of the Socialist Workers' Party and former Governor of the

Bank of Spain The Bank of Spain (, ) is the national central bank for Spain within the Eurosystem. It was the Spanish central bank from 1874 to 1998, issuing the peseta. Since 2014, it has also been Spain's national competent authority within European Banki ...

. He is the younger brother of

Francisco Fernández Ordóñez Francisco Fernández Ordóñez (22 June 1930 – 7 August 1992) was a Spanish politician who was the minister of foreign affairs in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) government of Felipe González from 1985 until shortly before his de ...

, also a Socialist politician, and he is married to

Inés Alberdi Inés Alberdi (born 11 February 1948) was the executive director of UNIFEM and has been a noted academic, policy advisor and policy maker on family and women's issues.Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

in 1945, he graduated in Law and Economic Science in the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

. He belongs to the Cuerpo de Técnicos Comerciales and State Economists.

Career

Fernández Ordóñez served as secretary of State for the Economy, secretary of State for Commerce and Executive director of the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

. In 1992 he was appointed president of the Court of Defense of the Competition. Between 1995 and 1999 he was president of the Commission of the National Electric System. Between 2004 and March 2006 he was secretary of state for Internal Revenue. On 10 March he was appointed Counsellor of the

and member of its Executive Commission.

Bank of Spain, 2006–2012

Cadena SER La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is a Spanish radio network established in 1924, with a regular listenership of 4,139,000 reported in 2018. The acronym SER stands for Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (Spanish Broadcasting Company). Cadena SE ...

announced that Fernández Ordóñez would succeed Jaime Caruana as Governor of the Bank of Spain in July 2006 when Caruana finished his term. Minister of Economy and Finance Pedro Solbes confirmed this decision on 21 June 2006. In response to the

Spanish property bubble The Spanish property bubble is the collapsed overshooting part of a long-term price increase of real estate prices in Spain. This long-term price increase has happened in various stages from 1985 up to 2008. The housing bubble can be clearly divi ...

, Fernández Ordoñez sounded the alarm in 2006, pleading with banks and mortgage lenders to rein in loans as the building bubble appeared ready to burst after house prices had risen by 150% in a decade. By 2008, he ordered a closer watch on the cashflow of banks. In May 2012, Fernández Ordoñez announced that he would step down on June 10, a month before the end of his six-year term, after government officials blamed him for the central bank’s failure to identify and warn earlier about the problems at

Bankia Bankia () was a Spanish financial services company that was formed in December 2010, consolidating the operations of seven regional savings banks, and was partially nationalized by the government of Spain in May 2012 due to the near-collapse ...

and other troubled institutions. Before the end of his term, he sought to defend his legacy before parliament, but the ruling party blocked his request. On 12 June 2012 he was replaced by Luis María Linde as governor of the Bank of Spain.

Later career

In 2017, Spain’s top court charged Fernández Ordoñez for failing to stop

from being listed on the stock exchange. He was later absolved of possible criminal acts in the case.

Other activities

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

(ECB), Ex-Officio Member of the Governing Council (2006–2012)

Political positions

In 2018, Fernández Ordóñez came out in favour of a radical reform of the banking and monetary system. In several speeches and opinion pieces in Spanish media, he advocated for the introduction of a

central bank digital currency A central bank digital currency (CBDC; also called digital fiat currency or digital base money) is a digital currency issued by a central bank, rather than by a commercial bank. It is also a liability of the central bank, unless it is dividend-y ...

in the Eurozone, a scheme under which citizens could have a current account directly at the central bank. Fernandez-Ordoñez thinks such system would make the financial system more stable and – paradoxically – less regulated (eg. it would make deposit guarantee schemes unnecessary):

digital money deposited in Central Banks does not need any protection from the State since their deposits are not “promises” to return money, rather they are simply money. Therefore, at no time would citizens run the risk of not being able to withdraw or transfer money from their deposits. The banking crises could no longer occur, with which citizens would stop suffering and paying the cost of these crises.

Sources

Note on the announcement of the appointment as Governor of the Bank of Spain

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez Ordonez, Miguel Angel 1945 births Living people Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Politicians from Madrid Complutense University of Madrid alumni Governors of the Bank of Spain