Dean Vali Nasr and the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute hosted a discussion on "The IMF's April 2016 Global Financial Stability Report: What Policies Could Normalize Markets?" with Mr. José Viñals, Financial Counsellor, Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund and Mr. Douglas Elliott, Partner, Oliver Wyman.
This event was moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Over the last six months, risks to global financial stability have risen, according to the International Monetary Fund’s April 2016 Global Financial Stability Report.
In advanced economies, the outlook has deteriorated because of heightened uncertainty and setbacks to growth and confidence. Disruptions to global asset markets have added to these pressures. Declines in oil and commodity prices have kept risks elevated in emerging markets, while greater uncertainty about China’s growth transition has increased spillovers to global markets. These developments tightened financial conditions, reduced risk appetite, and raised credit risks, weighing on financial stability. The situation in markets appears significantly improved, but is the turmoil of the past months now safely behind us, or is it a warning signal that more needs to be done to secure financial stability? The IMF’s April 2016 GFSR addresses this key question and many others.
José Viñals is currently the Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is a member of the Financial Stability Board, representing the IMF.
His professional career has been closely tied to the Central Bank of Spain, where he served as the Deputy Governor after holding successive positions.
He has also held the positions of Chairman of the European Central Bank International Relations Committee; and Chairman of Spain’s Deposit Guarantee Funds.
He has been a member of: the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on the Global Financial System; the European Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee; and the high-level group appointed by the President of the European Commission to examine economic challenges in the European Union. He was also a member of the European Union Economic and Financial Committee and a Board Member of the Spanish Securities Authority, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Valencia; a Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics; and Master's and Doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees in Economics from Harvard University. He is a former Faculty Member of the Economics Department at Stanford University. His awards include the Premio Rey Jaime I (King James I Prize) in Economics in 2001.
Douglas J. Elliott is a Partner in the financial services consulting practice of Oliver Wyman, where he focuses on public policy and its implications for the global financial sector. From 2009 to 2015, he was a Fellow in Economic Studies at The Brookings Institution, specializing primarily in financial institutions and markets and their regulation and on the Euro Crisis. He has written extensively on financial regulation and its international coordination (see http://www.brookings.edu/experts/elliottd.aspx).
He has been a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, as well as a consultant for the IMF, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. Prior to Brookings, he was a financial institutions investment banker for two decades, principally at J.P. Morgan.
He has testified multiple times before both houses of Congress and participated in numerous speaking engagements, as well as appearing widely in the major media outlets. The New York Times has described his analyses as “refreshingly understandable” and “without a hint of dogma or advocacy.”
Mr. Elliott graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude with an A.B. in Sociology in 1981. In 1984, he graduated from Duke University with an M.A. in Computer Science.