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).