LÁMFALUSSY LECTURES CONFERENCE

The Lamfalussy Lectures Conference, named after Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy, „the father of the Euro”, is a prestigious international conference hosted by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary. It is one of the key fora for European and global thinking on economic policy that provides platform for central bank governors and respected financial professionals to discuss the most urgent and topical issues related to global economic policy, specifically to monetary policy and to the stability of the financial system.

The motivation behind the launch of the conference series was that the 2008-2009 global financial and economic crisis has shaken the foundation of economics and shed new light on issues that were assumed to have been resolved. In this era of paradigm change, it is crucial for top-level national and international economic policy decision-makers to exchange opinions on the newly emerging economic world order. The high level of economic and financial integration calls for the exchange of views, the coordination of actions and the reinforcement of relationship networks among European and non-European decision-makers and economic opinion leaders.

The Lamfalussy conference series is organised in Budapest at the beginning of the year with the participation of hundreds of economic and financial professionals. The first conference, organised in January 2014, examined the economic, monetary and financial integration of Europe, the causes of the euro crisis, monetary policy challenges, euro accession strategies and issues related to the Banking Union. The central theme of the second conference in February 2015 was the changing role and objectives of central banks due to the financial crisis. The third, commemorative conference in February 2016 paid tribute to the work of the late Professor Lamfalussy. The fourth conference in January 2017 had a double focus: it discussed the opportunities in the European-Asian economic cooperation and the centrifuge forces threatening the future of the European integration. The 2018 event analysed the most significant trends and great transformations taking place nowadays within the EU and in Asia. The conference held in February 2019 focused on the process of economic catching-up, particularly within the EU and in Asia. The 2020 event examined the new challenges related to sustainable convergence, the conference held in 2021 discussed the future of monetary policy after Covid-19 with a perspective for public debt evolution while the conference in 2023 focused on the new dimensions of central banking in the post-COVID era.

Along with the Lamfalussy Lectures Conference, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank also established an international award given annually to recognise outstanding professional performance and lifetime achievements on the international scene that influence the work of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank and the international financial system in general. During the conference, the Lamfalussy Lecture is given by the winner of the Lamfalussy Award. The winners of the Award so far were Ewald Nowotny, then Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Benoît Couré, then Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, Jacques de Larosiere, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Zhou Xiaochuan, then Governor of the People’s Bank of China, Yves Mersch, then Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, Peter Praet, former Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, Boris Vujčić, Governor of Hrvatska narodna banka, Yi Gang, Governor of the People’s bank of China and Robert Holzmann, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank.