Spanish Government Appoints José Luis Escrivá to Head Bank of Spain

4 September 2024

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – The Spanish government on Wednesday named José Luis Escrivá as the new governor of the country’s central bank.

Escrivá will become head of the Bank of Spain after he takes the oath of office before Spain’s King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in the coming days, meaning he will be present at the next ECB Governing Council meeting on 12 September, when monetary authorities are widely expected to cut rates by 25bp.

In announcing the decision at the Economy, Trade and Digital Transformation Committee in Spanish Parliament, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo described Escrivá as ‘the ideal candidate for the position as Banco de España’s governor'.

There was no decision communicated with respect to the position of deputy governor, despite current officeholder Margarita Delgado’s term being set to end on 11 September.

The appointment of Escrivá, who was initially proposed in July, had been resisted by leading opposition party Partido Popular. Securing the political opposition’s agreement on the appointment of a new governor is not legally required, but is customary.

‘Escrivá has the necessary technical qualifications, acknowledged and accredited through his extensive experience in numerous public and private organisations’, Cuerpo said.

Escrivá’s career is that of a well-known economist with an ample track record in fiscal, monetary and other public institutions, including stints at Banco de España several decades ago as well as, subsequently, at the ECB.

With a degree in economics, Escrivá started working at the Spanish central bank as deputy director of the Department of Monetary and Financial Studies and then chief of the Monetary Research Unit of the bank.

In the early 1990’s, he published various papers analysing Spanish monetary policy.

In 1993, he joined the European Monetary Institute, which was formally created in January 1994 and was the predecessor institution of the European Central Bank.

Shortly after that, Escrivá moved to the ECB, where he was appointed chief of the Monetary Policy Division in 1999, a position he occupied for the next five years before switching to a commercial bank back in Spain.

Whereas Pablo Hernández de Cos, his predecessor at the Bank of Spain, stuck closely to the role of a competent and respected technocrat, Escrivá has additionally made a name for himself in Spanish politics.

After simultaneously heading two important fiscal watchdogs, Spanish AiRef and European EUIFI, Escrivá was called upon by Prime Minister Sánchez to join his government as minister in 2020. Since then, he’s headed two different ministries.

Escrivá will now return to the Bank of Spain as governor, in which capacity he will be a member of the ECB’s Governing Council. Although the move directly from government to the ECB is a bit controversial in Spain, there are many similar cases on the current Governing Council.

Governors from the central banks of Portugal, Greece, Slovakia and Malta were also previously ministers of their respective national governments. The Austrian National Bank will also be headed by a member of the current Austrian government, minister Martin Kocher, once Governor Robert Holzmann’s term ends in August 2025.

Even Christine Lagarde was also a finance minister in France years before becoming president of the ECB.