Award winners

Robert Holzmann

Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Governor

Robert Holzmann is an Austrian economist, Governor of the Austrian Central Bank und member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (since 2019), and elected member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (since 2014). He holds honorary positions at the South-Western University in Economics and Finance, Chengdu, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and University of New South Wales, Sydney. Before his return to academia in 2011, he held various positions at the World Bank including for 12 years Sector Director and acting Senior Vice President. Before joining the World Bank in 1997 he was academic in Austria and Germany, and senior economist at the IMF and OECD. He has published 39 books and over 200 articles on financial, fiscal and social policy issues. He has travelled to over 90 countries in the world. Robert Holzmann is Governor of the Austrian Central Bank und member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (since 2019), and elected member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (since 2014). He was academic in Austria and Germany, senior economist at the IMF and OECD, and held senior management positions at the World Bank. He has published 39 books and over 200 articles on financial, fiscal and social policy issues.

Yi Gang

People’s Bank of China

Governor

Dr. YI Gang is the Governor of the People’s Bank of China and the Deputy Director of the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements. Dr. Yi joined the People’s Bank of China in 1997 and has held a number of positions, including Secretary-General of the Monetary Policy Committee and Director-General of the Monetary Policy Department. In December 2007, he became a deputy governor and was appointed Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in July 2009, a position he held until December 2015. He was appointed Governor of the People’s Bank of China in March 2018. Dr. Yi received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois in 1986 and was a faculty member in the Department of Economics, Indiana University from 1986 to 1994. In 1994, he co-founded the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University and has been a professor at the CCER since then. His research interests include money, banking and the Chinese economy.

Boris Vujčić

Hrvatska Narodna Banka

Governor

Boris Vujčić holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zagreb. He has also received diplomas in Economics from the Montpellier University (France) and was a pre-doctoral PhD Fulbright student at the Michigan State University. He joined the Croatian National Bank in 1997, and was Director of the Research Department for three years before becoming Deputy Governor in 2000, a position to which he was re-appointed in 2006.
In July 2012, Mr Vujčić became Governor of the Croatian National Bank for a six-year term of office and was re-appointed for another six-year term of office in July 2018. Mr Vujčić has been a Deputy Chief Negotiator in Republic of Croatia’s negotiations with the European Union 2005-2012. He was also a member of the Global Development Network (GDN) Board in the same period, 2005-2012. He is a Member of the Steering Committee of the ESRB, since 2016, a Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Vienna Initiative, 2016-2020, and a Member of the General Council of the ECB, since 2013.
Mr Vujčić’s fields of expertise are macro and monetary economics, international finance and labor economics.

Peter Praet

European Central Bank

Former Member of the Executive Board, Chief economist

Peter Praet has been Executive Board member of the ECB and its Chief economist from June 2011 to May 2019. In this capacity ha was responsible for preparing the monetary policy meetings and making the proposals for the policy decision. From 2011 to 2014 he was also in charge of budget, organisation and human resources of the ECB, a period which includes the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism.
Peter Praet gained a PhD in economics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He was an economist at the International Monetary Fund (1978-1980), Professor of Economics at ULB (1980-1987) and Chief economist of Générale de Banque, subsequently Fortis Bank (1987-1999).
From 1999 to 2000 he was Chief of Staff of the Minister of Finance of Belgium, particularly involved in an important tax reform and a redesign of banking and insurance supervision.
In 2000 Peter Praet was appointed Executive Board member of the Central bank of Belgium (BNB/NBB), responsible for International Cooperation, Oversight of Financial and Payments Infrastructures and Financial Stability, a new activity for the central bank which he initiated.
During his term at the central bank he was appointed Executive Board member of the Belgian Banking, Financial and Insurance Commission, the Belgian integrated financial supervisor (2002-2011). He was in charge of banking and insurance regulation.
In 2008 Peter Praet was nominated member of the Steering Committee in charge of managing the Belgian systemic banking crisis.
Until his appointment for an 8-year term at the ECB Peter Praet continued to teach Money and Banking at ULB.
Peter Praet has served on a number of high level international and european committees. In the BIS: the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Committee on Payments and Settlement Systems (C PSS), the Committee on the Global Financial System (CGFS). In the European Union: the European Banking Authority (previously the Committee of European Banking Supervisors) and, as chair, the ECB Banking Supervision Committee (BSC). At the OECD he succeeded Stan Fischer as chair of the Working Party 3 (2018-2019).

Yves Mersch

European Central Bank

Member of the Executive Board

The awardee of the Lamfalussy Award in 2019 was Yves Mersch, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB). He has been a member of the Governing Council and the General Council of the ECB since their creation in 1998, so he is the longest-serving member of the Governing Council. During his career he represented his country in the governance of international organizations like IMF, World Bank group, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), etc., as well as in private sector companies in the areas of banking, insurance, telecommunications or satellites.

Zhou Xiaochuan

People’s Bank of China

Governor

In 2018, the award was presented to Zhou Xiaochuan, then Governor of the People’s Bank of China. During his career, he has filled key positions in such institutions as the People’s Bank of China, the China Construction Bank or the China Securities Regulatory Commission. During the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 1990s, he greatly contributed to maintaining the stability of the Chinese currency, the yuan. He was central bank governor from 2002 to 2018, which makes him the longest-serving head of the People’s Bank of China. Zhou Xiaochuan is one of China’s most influential financial reformists who achieved tremendous results during his central bank governorship in the area of financial reforms, while he is also recognised as an important contributor to the internationalisation of the renminbi.

Jacques de Larosiere

International Monetary Fund

Former Managing Director

In 2017, the recipient of Lamfalussy Award is Jacques de Larosiere, whose career intersected with Alexandre Lamfalussy’s career in many instances. Jacques de Larosiere was the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1978 and 1987. Between 1987 and 1993, he served as the Governor of the Banque de France, which was followed by his presidency at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) between 1993 and 1998. During his presidency, the EBRD vastly expanded its financing in the CEE region. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, he became the chairman of the high level committee on the reform of the European financial supervisory architecture. Many of their recommendations – today known as the de Larosiere report – have already been implemented, including the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).

Bank for International Settlements

In 2016, the awardee of the Lamfalussy Award was not an individual, but a deservedly recognized institution, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) seated in Basel. The BIS, established in 1930, is the longest standing international financial organisation of the world, with sixty member central banks, representing countries from around the world that together make up 95% of world GDP. As a bank for central banks, the BIS supports its members in their persuit of monetary and financial stability and fosters international cooperations. Since its establishment, the BIS has pioneered the reform of monetary and financial stabilty thinking in several areas, thereby establishing new concepts for the functioning of modern economies.

Benoît Couré

European Central Bank

Member of the executive board

In 2015, the Award was presented to Benoît Couré, who is a prominent European academic and empirical macroeconomist, with unrivalled innovative ideas. He is an excellent practical professional and a responsible decision-maker, who – in addition to being able and willing to manage the monetary policy of ECB and the finances of Europe – is also an innovative economic policy-maker, and who has been urging the necessity of using new monetary policy instruments more intensely from as early as 2011, well ahead of their implementation in this form.

Ewald Nowotny

Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Governor

The Award was first awarded by the MNB’s Governor on 31 January 2014. In 2014, the Lamfalussy Award was presented to Ewald Nowotny, then Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, a member of the ECB’s Board of Governors, and former professor and deputy rector of the Vienna University of Economics.

Zsolt Kuti

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Executive Director

Mr Zsolt Kuti is Executive Director for Monetary Policy, Financial Analysis and Statistics in the central bank of Hungary since 2021. He completed his studies at the Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration and the University of Otago in New Zealand. He received his master's degree from the Central European University. He started his career at the central bank of Hungary as a Senior Analyst in the Financial Analysis Department in 2008. Later, Mr. Kuti became the Director of Monetary Policy and Financial Analysis Directorate. In 2021 he was appointed Executive Director responsible for Monetary Policy, Financial Analysis and Statistics. He also researched at the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements during his career. In addition, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Budapest Stock Exchange since 2014 and a member of the Board of Directors of KELER Central Depository Ltd. since 2020. For nearly a decade, monetary policy and financial market analysis has been linked to his name in the Central Bank of Hungary. He and his team have an essential role in supporting the decision-making of the monetary policy strategy, analysing the latest macro-financing developments of the financial market and the Hungarian economy, and channelling economic knowledge into educational programs.

Levente Magyar

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Deputy Minister and Parliamentary State Secretary

Levente Magyar has been Deputy Minister and Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade since August 2017. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Minister he was State Secreatry for Economic Diplomacy from 2014 till 2017 and from 2014 till 2022 he held the position of Minsiterial Commissioner for Francophone Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Levente Magyar spent 3 years at the Prime Minsiter’s Office, first as Deputy Head of Department in 2012 and between 2012 and 2014 as Deputy State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. From 2010 till 2012 he was the Head of Section Responsible for Cross-Border Infrastructure Development at the State Secretariat for Exterior Economic Relations of the Ministry of National Economy. He started his carrer at the Cabinet of Foreign Affairs of the Office of Parliament. Levente Magyar graduated at Corvinus University of Budapest in 2010 in social studies, international studies.

Gergely Fábián

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Executive Director

Mr. Gergely Fábián is the Executive Director of the Executive Directorate of Financial System Analysis and Statistics at the Central Bank of Hungary since September 2017 and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Budapest Institute of Banking (BIB) since August 2017. Prior to his current position, from 2015, he was the head of the Directorate Financial System Analysis and from October 2012, he led within the Bank the financial stability analyst team responsible for the financial stability report, where he started working in 2009. In the past years, he played an instrumental role in works related to credit stimulus, conversion of FX-denominated household loans and NPL resolution.

Baksay Gergely

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Director

Gergely Baksay is director of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank's (MNB) Directorate for Fiscal and Competitiveness Analysis. Graduated at Corvinus University of Budapest in 2003 in economic policy and statistics. Between 2003 and 2007 he worked as a macroeconomic analyst at the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. In 2007 he started to work at the Magyar Nemzeti Bank as an analyst dealing with budgetary and financial issues. He was appointed in 2013 as head of department for Fiscal Analyses and in 2014 as director. His main field of expertise is public debt and public finance, but his responsibilities broadened later by the analysis of competitiveness as well. His papers have been published in the MNB book series, in further articles of the central bank and in the Financial and Economic Review and the Economic Review among others.

Katalin Novák

Minister of State for Family and Youth Affairs

The awardee of the Popovics Award in 2019 is Katalin Novák, Minister of State for Family and Youth Affairs and Vice President of Fidesz. As Minister of State and a mother of three children, she is personally dedicated to representing the interests of Hungarian families, the youth and the elderly. She believes it is crucial to support women in overcoming the challenges, and one of her main objectives is to help reconcile work-life balance of women in society and in the economic life.

Péter Benő Banai

State Secretary for Public Finances

In 2018, the Popovics award was presented to Péter Benő Banai, State Secretary for Public Finances of the Ministry for National Economy. He played a crucial role in the successful implementation of the fiscal turnaround commenced in 2010, in establishing fiscal and general government predictability and in formulating financial discipline. Taken together, these achievements contributed to establishing a balance between the two main branches of economic policy and provided the means for the growth turnaround.

Barnabás Virág

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Executive Director

In 2017, awardee of the Popovics Award is Barnabás Virág who has been the Executive Director of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank responsible for monetary policy, financial stability and lending incentives. As a central banker, he has become a recognised expert in economic analysis and forecasting.

Ádám Balog

MKB Bank

Chairman and CEO

In 2016 the Popovics Award went to Ádám Balog, Chairman and CEO of MKB Bank and former Deputy Governor of the MNB. Ádám Balog played a determinant role in the implementation of the successful turnaround in monetary policy, and in the elaboration of the Funding for Growth Scheme. MKB Bank, reformed under his leadership, continues to operate in the domestic financial market as a competitive and profitable bank, fostering the stability of the financial intermediary system.

Palotai Dániel

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Executive Director and Chief Economist

The following year, in 2015, the Popovics Award was presented to Dániel Palotai, Executive Director and Chief Economist of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, who has played a significant role in the preparation, design and communication of the MNB’s easing cycle and other monetary policy measures.

Márton Nagy

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Executive director

In 2014 the Popovics Award was awarded to Márton Nagy, Deputy Governor (then Executive Director) of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, who played a major role in the shaping and development of the Hungarian financial system.