C. Maxwell Watson

Max Watson is a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and Director of Research at JH&Co. He was previously a Deputy Director of the IMF, an Economic Adviser to the European Commission, and an Advisor at the Bank of England. His work over the past two decades has focused on financial stability, with a special emphasis on the European Union and its neighbours. He currently advises central bank governors in several former transition economies on financial stability analysis and policy co-ordination issues. The present focus of his academic research is on the effectiveness of central banks’ financial stability work, and on policy instruments to safeguard financial stability in the open and integrated financial setting experienced by Europe’s catching-up economies. He has extensive practical experience of working with policy-makers in Eastern Europe and other emerging market countries. This was gained as a special adviser on financial stability to the Director-General of DG ECFIN at the European Commission; as IMF mission chief to many European economies; and as Chief of the IMF’s Capital Markets Division. His earlier career was spent in banking supervision at the Bank of England and at a London merchant bank; and he was also secretary of the EU Contact Group of bank supervisors. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and INSEAD business school, and is a fellow of the UK Institute of Financial Services. He is a British Citizen.