François Villeroy de Galhau

François Villeroy de Galhau   (central banker)
Born	1959-02-24 Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France
Nationality	French
Alma mater	École Polytechnique, ÉNA
Member of	Attali commission, BNP Paribas, French-American Foundation/Young Leaders/1995
Governor of the Bank of France since 2015.  Governor of the Banque de France In office 1 November 2015 - Present Preceded by Christian Noyer

François Villeroy de Galhau) is a French civil servant and banker serving as Governor of the Bank of France since 2015. He is a former "Young Leader" of the French-American Foundation.

Early life

Born in Strasbourg, he descends from the family Villeroy de Galhau (co-owner of the ceramic manufacturer Villeroy & Boch, domiciled since about 200 years Saarland); he speaks German fluently. After earning his French baccalaureate degree at the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, and his engineering degree at the École Polytechnique, he studied at ÉNA (École nationale d'administration) from 1982 to 1984.

Career

Career in the public sector

Villeroy de Galhau started his career at the Inspection générale des finances.

From 1990 to 1993, he was European politics adviser of the Finance Minister of France and then of the Prime Minister of France Pierre Bérégovoy; he worked in several departments at the Direction du Trésor in Bercy and then in Brussels, as conseiller financier in the Permanent Mission of France.

Under the Government of Lionel Jospin (1997–2002), he was (1997–99) directeur de cabinet of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and (1999–2000) of Christian Sautter (Minister of the Economy, Finances and Industry) and from February 2000 to 26 August 2003 director general of the Direction générale des Impôts (directeur général des impôts).

Career in the private sector

In 2003, Villeroy de Galhau became general manager of Cetelem, a BNP Paribas company giving retail credits, and from 2011 to 2015 he was general manager for domestic markets at BNP Paribas.

In May 2015, Prime Minister Manuel Valls appointed him to lead a committee scanning the financing of investments. He delivered his report on 26 September 2015.

Governor of the Bank of France

On 8 September 2015, the President of France, François Hollande, nominated Villeroy de Galhau as next Governor of the Bank of France, succeeding Christian Noyer. As such, he presides over the General Council, the body responsible for deliberating on all matters relating to non-Eurosystem activities. He conducts the three main missions of the Banque de France: monetary strategy, financial stability and the provision of economic service to households and small businesses.

As Bank of France governor, Villeroy de Galhau also sits in the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, which makes monetary policy decisions for the whole Eurozone.

Upon his arrival, Villeroy de Galhau amplified the transformation plan of his predecessor Christian Noyer, which he named "Ambition 2020". During this period, the Bank of France transferred an amount of 4.5 billion euros to the French state in 2016, then 5 billion euros in 2017 and 5.6 billion euros in 2018, and 6.5 billions in 2019; most of which stemmed from the interest income earned in the context of the asset purchases programmes (quantitative easing) conducted in the whole Eurosystem as part of the ECB's monetary policy.

In 2017, Villeroy de Galhau took part in the launch of the Network for Greening the Financial System. Under his leadership, the Banque de France announced plans to exit from coal and limit exposure to gas and oil in its investment portfolio by 2024 as part of a shift towards more environmentally friendly assets.

Covid-19 crisis

He highlighted the State's role as a "shock absorber" to mitigate the crisis, observing that "Massive public intervention has absorbed at least two-thirds of the shock, significantly cushioning the impact for households and companies".

He noted the strong consensus among Economists regarding the measures required to end the crisis and restart the economy as soon as possible and in the best possible conditions: creation of a “cash shield” for all companies,resumption of business activities and implementation of major investment programmes. An increase in public debt must be accepted as a natural consequence of these measures.

Finally, he recalled the benefits of credit mediation for companies struggling to secure a loan. This service was in extremely high demand during the crisis, processing as many requests in one day as in an entire month in 2019.

On 14 December 2020, François Villeroy de Galhau estimated that the French economy had shrunk by 9% on average in 2020 compared to pre-lockdown activity levels. He predicted 5% growth in 2021 and 2022.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
WEF/Annual Meeting/2016	20 January 2016	23 January 2016	World Economic Forum Switzerland	Attended by over 2500 people, both leaders and followers, who were explained how the Fourth Industrial Revolution would changed everything, including being a "revolution of values".
WEF/Annual Meeting/2017	17 January 2017	20 January 2017	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2950 known participants, including prominently Bill Gates. "Offers a platform for the most effective and engaged leaders to achieve common goals for greater societal leadership."
WEF/Annual Meeting/2019	22 January 2019	25 January 2019	World Economic Forum Switzerland	"The reality is that we are in a Cold War [against China] that threatens to turn into a hot one."
WEF/Annual Meeting/2020	21 January 2020	24 January 2020	World Economic Forum Switzerland	This mega-summit of the world's ruling class and their political and media appendages happens every year, but 2020 was special, as the continuous corporate media coverage of COVID-19 started more or less from one day to the next on 20/21 January 2020, coinciding with the start of the meeting.

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