Lessons Learned: Ewald Nowotny

Ewald Nowotny was appointed governor of the National Bank of Austria in September 2008 at the start of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), having previously served as a vice president of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, the house bank of the European Union. Nowotny participated in the implementation of the multilateral stabilization framework known as the Vienna Initiative, which helped restore stability in the financial markets of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe during the GFC. Working with the Austrian Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he steered the Austrian economy away from recession. During the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, Nowotny and other central bankers helped safeguard the financial and macroeconomic stability of the euro, shaping new institutions such as the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) to protect the European Union’s financial system. He retired in 2019 because of term limits and returned to his position as professor at the Vienna University of Economics.