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From head watchdog to resolution director

Hitherto head of the German financial watchdog BaFin, Elke König is now in charge of the new EU Single Resolution Board.

20.03.2015
© dpa/Daniel Naupold - Elke König

She was Germany’s paramount bank supervisor. And she now heads a Euro­pean institution. With effect from 1 March, Elke König, who was born in 1954 in Cologne and holds a doctorate in economics, will move from Germany’s financial services watchdog BaFin to the European Union’s Single Resolution Board (SRB), which is in charge of winding up ailing banks. She will thus be at the helm of a key pillar of the European banking union: the SRB will regulate the orderly winding up of banks that are in difficulties while also ensuring that taxpayers and the real economy bear as little of the brunt as possible. The European authority was founded as one of the key lessons the EU learned from the financial crisis. The European Parliament confirmed König’s appointment by a resounding majority.
srb.europa.eu